Charles Worth ’s masquerade costumes for the balls of the French Empress Eugenie

For many centuries, masquerade balls have been one of the favorite entertainments of the European aristocracy. In rare cases, masquerades were thematic, most often there were no themes, which made it possible to appear in any image – a historical or mythological figure, an allegory or a literary character. For example, in the “Portrait of Countess Yu.P. Samoilova”, created by Karl Bryullov in 1842, you can see all the variety of heroes of masquerade balls.

Countess Samoilova herself is dressed in a dress that refers, albeit very conditionally, to the costume of the Middle Ages (trimmed with ermine fur, a skirt made of alternating fragments of silk of different colors in the style of the medieval heraldic outfit “miparti”), on her adopted daughter Amazilia Pacini we see an oriental outfit , and behind them on the left is a jester, and on the right is Hermes with a caduceus, a Turkish nobleman, etc. Until the middle of the 19th century, it was paintings and graphic works that served as the main visual source of masquerade costumes. But in the 1860s, a real masquerade fashion appeared with catalogs full of a variety of images, which, at the end of the 19th century, acquired incredible proportions.

The beginning of masquerade fashion and the expansion of the theme of costumes could have been laid by one of the most famous French fashion designers, Charles Frederic Worth. In the late 1850s, while still a very young master, he became the favorite fashion designer of the French Empress Eugenie. And from the beginning of the 1860s, he began to dress all European aristocrats in his luxurious dresses. Some researchers believe that high society ladies in the famous portraits of Franz Xavier Winterhalter are depicted in his dresses.

In the 1860s, Empress Eugenie loved to throw extravagant masquerade balls in Paris, and Charles Worth’s workshop was commissioned to design masquerade costumes for these balls. Judging by the surviving sketches, the task given to the fashion designer could involve the creation of costumes that no one had ever seen, on topics that no one had addressed before. Worth’s artists did a great job designing a series of intricate outfits that would probably inspire designers of the following decades to come up with the most incredible fancy dress costumes.

Most of the masquerade costumes are really absolutely innovative, original, sometimes even bold for their time. Guests of the masquerades of Empress Eugenia Worth dresses up in “Fan”, “Rainbow”, “Alphabet”, “Cherry Tree” and even “Hell”. Let’s take a look at some of the sketches currently owned by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

This fantastic collection opens with a sketch of the Rainbow costume. The dress is made of gray-blue iridescent fabric, the skirt is decorated with transparent beads imitating raindrops and the image of a rainbow under the sun that decorates the bodice. Two more suns are located on the shoulders and sleeves, another is a headdress, from which a transparent rainbow-colored tulle veil falls, also probably decorated with raindrop beads. The style of this dress, like all the others, is quite simple and typical of the 1860s, which simplified and speeded up their tailoring.

For Charles Worth’s busy workshop, this was important, since the creation of fancy dresses was often given very little time, while the number of costumes was large. Another interesting distinguishing feature of masquerade costumes was a cropped skirt, probably borrowed from theatrical and ballet dresses. For secular outfits, a cropped skirt was unacceptable.

In this sketch, we have a more spectacular costume called “Dawn”. Its bodice, like that of the previous dress, is decorated with an image of the sun, the rays of which break through lush and very complex clouds, made, according to experts, from gauze or tulle. These clouds decorate the neckline and the upper half of the skirt. The lower half depicts a night landscape, with the moon setting below the horizon and moths or bats fluttering in the darkness. A border of feathers imitating grass is sewn along the hem of the dress. On the head of the lady is a wreath of flowers with flower garlands falling on her shoulders and a sparkling star above her forehead.

In this sketch, we have a more spectacular costume called “Dawn”. Its bodice, like that of the previous dress, is decorated with an image of the sun, the rays of which break through lush and very complex clouds, made, according to experts, from gauze or tulle. These clouds decorate the neckline and the upper half of the skirt. The lower half depicts a night landscape, with the moon setting below the horizon and moths or bats fluttering in the darkness. A border of feathers imitating grass is sewn along the hem of the dress. On the head of the lady is a wreath of flowers with flower garlands falling on her shoulders and a sparkling star above her forehead.

The basis of the dress “Basket with flowers” also lay the most common everyday item. And the dress in this case, the artist decided to create a fairly simple one. It is white, similar to the ball gowns of this period, the corsage is decorated with flowers and blue ribbons. But what distinguishes this dress from secular couple of details is multi-colored flowers randomly scattered over all surfaces of the fluffy skirt, as well as an integral accessory of the outfit in the form of an inverted flower basket with handles, which is worn over the skirt.

And this costume was, perhaps, one of the most striking and even outrageous of the majority of costumes created by Worth’s workshop during this period. Devils jump all over his bright crimson skirt, they climb pitchforks, swing on ropes, bats flutter over them right there. The upper skirt is the skin of a huge black lizard with gilded scales. The bodice of the dress is decorated with a frightening owl with large green eyes, whose feathers seem to be on fire. Fiery flashes can be seen at the waist, shoulders, red-orange feathers are sewn along the hem of the dress, also resembling a flame. Another horned devil sitting in the fire with a pitchfork in his hands serves as a headdress. Attached to it is a black veil depicting stars, probably symbolizing the night.

The Alphabet masquerade dress is made of bright red-orange fabric with gold accents. On the edge of the skirt there are overlapping large silver cards with letters, a few more letters are embroidered along the edges of the transparent tulle sleeves, as well as on black and gold scrolls that decorate the neckline of the dress. The headdress is a tiara of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet – alpha and omega.

Card games have become the theme of several fancy dress costumes. One of these is the Queen of Clubs costume. Jules Elleu, the author of the sketch, takes an interesting approach to interpreting the image. Instead of literally embodying the dress of the Queen of Clubs from a playing card, the artist takes as a basis a simple white dress with a three-layer skirt and the same three-layer sleeves. Along the edge of each layer, symbols of the club suit cut out of black fabric are sewn on. To prevent the costume from appearing monotonous, the corsage of the dress is made in black, and the skirt is decorated with a black ribbon with white clubs. On the neck of the lady you can see a necklace of clubs, and her head is crowned with a crown with teeth in the form of clubs.

This suit represents card games in general. The dress is made of purple and green fabrics. In the context of card games, green can symbolize the color of the cloth of card tables, on which cards were played in the 19th century. The entire dress, the white ribbon that falls from the shoulder, and even the shoes are completely covered with gold coins, a reminder of how much can be at stake in card games. Rows of playing cards run along the hem and neckline, three more cards and several gold coins adorn the hairstyle.

The Fortune Teller fancy dress sketch is also one of the most interesting in the collection of Charles Worth’s workshop sketches. The dress has a long wide skirt and another very intricate sheer tulle skirt over the first one. Along the hem of a long skirt there is a wide ribbon with images of magical symbols. The sheer overskirt has an overlapping divination card hem and is attached to a wheel of fortune around the waist. A small bag with three long golden tassels is also attached to the wheel. The fortune teller’s dress and cap are decorated with gold coins, reminding you that before you know your fate, you must gild the fortune teller’s pen.

This fancy dress is another fine example of the creative ingenuity of Worth’s workshop artists. The theme of the outfit is “Cherry Tree”. The tree is deliberately turned upside down so that the trunk forms the bodice of the dress, and the crown extends over a wide skirt of white fabric with yellow stripes. The skirt is also decorated with faux cherries and appliqués depicting birds. In addition, on the left side of the skirt, the artist added a funny detail – a small net, which caught several birds.

The “Diana the Huntress” outfit showcases an 1860s-inspired image of an ancient Greek goddess. The lower skirt of the costume on a wide crinoline is made of alternating stripes of brown fur and turquoise fabric, which depict the heads of deer and wolves. The headdress is a miniature lion, which hides in the hair as if in bushes, preparing to make a jump. Accessories are also attached to the outfit – a hunting horn, a whip, a knife and a hunting bag. And on the boots trimmed with fur, you can see spurs.

The theme of this costume is “Winter”. True, it is not completely clear whether this is a symbolic image of winter in general or some more specific winter image. The outfit was created on the basis of winter outerwear that was fashionable in those years, in which the ladies went skating, with the only difference being that the fancy dress has a deep neckline and short sleeves. Otherwise, like winter outfits, the dress is decorated with toggles and trimmed with white fur. The headdress is a hat, also similar to the winter hats of that time – it is made of blue fabric and fur and decorated with a feather. Fur boots with heels were supposed to go with the costume.

The name of the costume in the illustration above is unknown, but various board games served as the theme for it. The upper skirt is a board for playing checkers, and on both sides along the edges we see ribbons with checkers in white and black. The inner green skirt symbolizes the game of dice, which can be seen along the hem. The apron of the dress is a backgammon board. It is curious that backgammon ties all three games together – in them, as you know, checkers and moves are made after throwing the dice. Two glasses with bones tied to them on strings are accessories for this outfit – one glass decorates the hair, and the second is held by the lady in her hands and can probably play with it during the masquerade.

What this costume symbolizes is also not known for certain, however, there is a version that it could be the “Weather Forecast” costume, since the dials depicted along the hem of the skirt with numbers from one to eighteen can indicate a device for measuring air pressure, and cones alternating with dials, may be early devices for measuring wind force. The red bucket that the lady is holding in her hands may be designed to collect rainwater.

Another striking design in this collection is the design for the Eva costume, which makes a huge impression of an artificial snake wrapping around the dress and rising above the head of the lady. The dress itself is quite simple, but completely covered with small bouquets of wildflowers. The wreath decorating the lady’s head and holding the snake above her head is made of twigs with apple fruits.

Unfortunately, none of these dresses has survived, but the sketches make it possible to understand what kind of rich imagination artists and fashion designers had in the middle of the 19th century. The authors of these sketches were, in addition to Charles Worth himself, Jules Elle and Leon So. The latter continued to design masquerade costumes and in the 1880s he published one of the famous catalogs of costumes for masquerade balls – “The Art of Fancy Dress”, which, like other catalogs, became an excellent help for craftswomen of the late 19th century.