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Creative Arts Fellowship (2023)
Creative Arts Fellowship (2023)
Over the summer of 2023, I participated in the University of Pittsburgh Frederick Honor's College's Creative Arts Fellowship. With it I researched the social context and construction methods of 18th century Versailles court fashion. I then used that research to design and build a grande robe à la française. Abstract:Versailles is synonymous with extravagance and excess, especially in the period Marie-Antoinette reigned. She is especially notorious for the huge sum she spent on her wardrobe, and I wanted to learn how deserved that notoriety was. For this project, I took a deep dive into the court fashions of Versailles in the 18th century, drawing from paintings, fashion plates, extent garments, and historical patterns to design and construct my own court-appropriate gown. In the process, I also researched how the end of the sumptuary laws, the birth of fashion magazines, and the competitive silk industry contributed to the creation of the fashion industry as we know it today, complete with fast-fashion trends and a thriving second-hand clothing industry. This research informed the decisions I made in creating the dress, deepening my understanding of the trends of the period in order to be able to create something that is both historically accurate and a totally new design. The gown is made from silk taffeta and supported by undergarments made of cotton, silk, linen, steel hooping wire, and synthetic whalebone. After a year on display at Hillman Library, it has now been moved to the 16th floor of the Cathedral of Learning.
These photos show the front and back of the overgown. The gown, decorative petticoat, and trimmings took 16 yards of silk taffeta to build. The back of the gown features Watteau pleats, a feature distinct to the robe à la française style this gown is emulating.
This image shows the decorative petticoat. I made it in a contrasting fabric to showcase how women would mix and match their overgowns and petticoats for more variety in how to wear the garment. As was traditional in the period, only the exposed part of the petticoat is trimmed to save time and resources.
This photo shows the grande pannier, an oblong hoop skirt measuring 6 feet across and 3 feet deep. The size of the hoop is what elevated the standard, and relatively casual, robe à la française style into a style suitable for court.
This photo features the linen chemise and stays. The stays are half-boned with synthetic whalebone and covered with a decorative layer of silk dupioni. The chemise was worn closest to the skin as an undergarment and is the only part of the ensemble that would be washed regularly.
Bachelor's of Philosophy
Bachelor's of Philosophy
In 2025, I completed a Bachelors of Philosophy in Theatre Arts at the University of Pittsburgh. In my thesis, I studied how 19th century fashion magazines project an idealized version of womanhood, and then analyzed how the idealized characteristics of women compared to the idealized image of women portrayed in fashion plates. Abstract:Ladies’ magazines in the 19th century, through their instructions on how it is fashionable for women to act and dress, portray an impossible Ideal Woman, which changes over the course of the century. The changes in how women were expected to act can then be compared to the similarly evolving clothing trends to draw conclusions on how fashions and behaviors interacted and formed that ideal. To study this, I looked at 121 Harper’s Bazar magazines dating from 1869 to 1886. During this period, popular perceptions of femininity were moving away from the Cult of Domesticity, which was popular from the 1830s through the 1860s and demanded that women display both perfect morality and proper etiquette while never leaving the home, and towards the emancipated New Woman, or the more socially acceptable Gibson Girl of the 1890s, who was educated, athletic, and allowed to join the workforce, as long as she returned to her husband and children at the end of the day. I made a content breakdown of the magazines by year to analyze what the ideal woman was supposed to care about, and found that it changed between 1870 and 1880. Overall, the magazine changed to include more practical articles about managing a household, while earlier magazines focused more on educating women about morality and etiquette. The magazine also emphasized sewing skills less and less over time, reflecting industrial progress, which meant that it was no longer a requirement for fashionable women to know how to sew. I found that, while the expansion of the women’s sphere outside of the home and into more important matters was reflected in the content of the magazines, especially in how it began to emphasize practicality, the fashions of the 1870s and 1880s were unprecedentedly constrictive and cumbersome, overall appearing to limit women’s movement as a conservative reaction against that expansion. Moving into the 1890s, the fashionable silhouette and social conventions both began to loosen as society came to terms with women being active participants in society, reflecting how expectations on how women should act and dress intertwine to create an impossible Ideal Woman to aspire to.
This is the presentation I made for my thesis defense. If you would like to learn more or read the full paper, reach out to me at maya.f.jones9@gmail.com.
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