A robe à la française was a very fashionable women’s dress in the 18th century. The dress in question consisted of a very tight corset that was attached to a skirt placed over numerous petticoats that, at the same time, were placed over a shell that gave volume to the hips. A silhouette easily identifiable with historical figures such as Marie Antoinette and the ladies who inhabited the castle of Versailles. At the time, fashion was the reflection of a wider cultural change, that of the transition from Baroque to Rococo, a period in which opulence and excesses of ornamentation were a symbol of prestige and social status. The French Revolution marked the end of the exuberant spirit and the adoption of more austere fashions, a step that symbolized the end of the dress of that era. Three hundred years later, the silhouette of the 18th century has crept back onto the main catwalks around the world.
After Vivienne Westwood’s death in December 2022, her right-hand man of a quarter of a century, Andreas Kronthaler, debuted the proposal for spring-summer 2024 with a collection full of dresses with silhouettes of era that focused attention on the volume of the hips. Model Irina Shayk walked the show in a stunning white strapless dress with a panier effect skirt. He combined it with ballet flats with a bow, very on trend, and circular sunglasses that gave a futuristic touch to a retro aesthetic look. The result was an updated vintage silhouette that would determine the new user manual.
Alexa Chung – one of the most stylish women, called the “Kate Moss of the 21st century” by The New York Times – confirmed the relevance of this new vintage dress by wearing it to a Fashion Week show Londoner The it girl showed it off in the minimal expression, that is to say, with a simple pattern and a voluminous asymmetrical skirt, but discreet to wear. She paired it with dark tights and matching ballet flats. A choice that coincided with that of Naomi Watts to attend an event organized every year by the house of Dior in the Brooklyn neighborhood of New York. The performer wore a black dress designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri, creative director of the French firm, which enhanced the A-shaped silhouette without falling into exaggeration. The minimalism and lack of opulence of Marie Antoinette’s time are precisely the requirements demanded by the dress that will be a trend this summer.
Another recent case is that of the singer Katy Perry. The artist forgot for a day the extravagances that characterize his public presence and succumbed to the charm of simplicity: a minimalist and elegant design by Coperni with a plunging neckline and extra-long skirt. She elevated the look by giving it a futuristic touch with her handbag and hairstyle. The first, Coperni’s most viral model, the new version of the classic Swipe, presented in the last autumn-winter 2025 collection. An ethereal-looking handbag weighing only 30 grams made of airgel, a silicon material used by NASA to capture stardust that is 1,000 times less dense than glass and, by volume, is composed of 99% air. For the hairstyle, a low, polished ponytail to which she added several silver rings.
From the futurist to the fifth art – that of painting – Maria Grazia Chiuri turned her haute couture Dior dress into a fabric that looked like something out of an impressionist painting by Claude Monet. Natalie Portman was her faithful defender in January on the red carpet of the Golden Globes. Thousands of white and different colored microflowers formed a watercolor that hypnotized and seduced in equal parts.
It could well have been part of Queen Marie Antoinette’s list of dresses. Because, at the end of the day, there is nothing new in the fashion industry, only what many have chosen to forget.
