---
title: "Mantua"
description: "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."
type: Glossary
url: https://teazle.art/glossary/mantua
published: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-14
author: "The Teazle editors"
---

# 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](https://teazle.art/glossary/stomacher.md) at the front, and a petticoat, worn over wide [panniers](https://teazle.art/glossary/pannier.md). By the 1750s the style was old-fashioned in daily life and survived only as court dress.


## Sources

1. [Mantua, ca. 1740–45, T.260-1969 (catalogue entry)](https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O137678). Victoria and Albert Museum
2. [Mantua](https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/mantua/). Fashion History Timeline, Fashion Institute of Technology
3. [Mantua fact sheet](https://www.hrp.org.uk/media/2863/mantua-fact-sheet.pdf). Historic Royal Palaces

Canonical: https://teazle.art/glossary/mantua