Mantua
A mantua is a formal women’s gown of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that, in England, became the required dress for appearing at court.
The mantua began in the late seventeenth century as a loose gown, its name probably taken from the French manteau, a mantle. Over the eighteenth century it hardened into the most formal dress an Englishwoman could wear.
What does a court mantua consist of?
A court mantua is a set of pieces: a bodice and skirt with a train folded and pinned up at the back, a decorated stomacher at the front, and a petticoat, worn over wide panniers. By the 1750s the style was old-fashioned in daily life and survived only as court dress.
Sources
- Mantua, ca. 1740–45, T.260-1969 (catalogue entry). Victoria and Albert Museum
- Mantua. Fashion History Timeline, Fashion Institute of Technology
- Mantua fact sheet. Historic Royal Palaces
See also
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