---
title: "Robe à la française"
description: "The robe à la française is an eighteenth-century gown whose back falls from the shoulders in loose box pleats, open at the front over a stomacher and petticoat."
type: Glossary
url: https://teazle.art/glossary/robe-a-la-francaise
published: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-14
author: "The Teazle editors"
---

# Robe à la française

*The robe à la française is an eighteenth-century gown whose back falls from the shoulders in loose box pleats, open at the front over a stomacher and petticoat.*

The robe à la française, or sack-back gown, is recognisable from behind: two pairs of deep box pleats fall loose from the neckline to the floor, ending in a slight train. At the front the gown is open, showing a decorated [stomacher](https://teazle.art/glossary/stomacher.md) and a matching petticoat, usually over [panniers](https://teazle.art/glossary/pannier.md).

## Why “Watteau pleats”?

The back pleats are often called Watteau pleats because they appear in the paintings of Antoine Watteau. The name is a later one, from the nineteenth century, not a term used in the eighteenth.

## How formal was it?

By the 1770s it was one of the most formal gowns a woman could wear, second only to court dress.


## Sources

1. [Sack-back gown with skirt (robe à la française), ca. 1775–85, BK-2011-7](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/BK-2011-7). Rijksmuseum
2. [Sack, saque, robe à la française](https://emuseum.colonialwilliamsburg.org/objects/30920/sack-saque-robe-a-la-francaise). Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
3. [Sack-back gown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack-back_gown). Wikipedia

Canonical: https://teazle.art/glossary/robe-a-la-francaise