The robe à la française was a very fashionable feminine dress in the 18th century. The costume in question was made up of a very tight corset that was attached to a skirt placed over numerous petticoats that, at the same time, were placed on a frame that gave volume to the hips. An easily identifiable silhouette with historical figures such as Marie Antoinette and the ladies who inhabited the castle of Versailles.
At that time, fashion was a reflection of a broader cultural change, that of the transition from baroque to rococo, a period in which opulence and excesses of ornamentation were a symbol of social status and prestige. The French Revolution marked the end of the exuberant spirit and the adoption of simpler fashions, a step that symbolized the end of the costume of that era. Three centuries later, the 18th century silhouette has returned to the main catwalks around the world.
After the death of Vivienne Westwood in December 2022, her right-hand man for a quarter of a century, Andreas Kronthaler, debuted his proposal for spring-summer 2024 with a collection full of dresses with vintage silhouettes that focused attention on volume of the hips.
The model Irina Shayk paraded in an impressive white corseted strapless dress with a panier-effect skirt. She completed it with some very trendy lace-up ballet flats and circular sunglasses that gave that futuristic touch to a retro aesthetic look. The result was an updated vintage silhouette that would determine its new user manual.
Alexa Chung – one of the most stylish women dubbed the “Kate Moss of the 21st century” by The New York Times – confirmed the relevance of this new period costume by wearing it to a London Fashion Week show. The 'it girl' wore it in its minimal expression, that is, with a simple pattern and a voluminous but discreet asymmetrical skirt. 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 Dior house in the Brooklyn neighborhood of New York. The performer wore a black dress designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri, creative director of the French brand, which highlighted the 'A'-shaped silhouette without falling into exaggeration. That minimalism and lack of opulence of Marie Antoinette's time are the requirements that period costume demands for the new generations.
Another recent case is that of the singer Katy Perry. The singer forgot for one day about the extravagances that characterize her posing in public and she succumbed to the charm of her simplicity: a minimalist and elegant design by Coperni with a bardot neckline and extra-long skirt. She elevated her look by giving it a futuristic touch with the bag and hairstyle.
The first, Coperni's most viral model, the new version of the classic Swipe presented in the last autumn-winter 2025 collection. A bag with an ethereal appearance and weighing only 30 grams made with airgel, a silicon-based material used by NASA to capture stardust, which is 1,000 times less dense than glass and, in terms of volume, is made up 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 Dior haute couture dress into a canvas that looked like it came out of an impressionist painting by Claude Monet. Natalie Portman was the faithful defender of it last January on the Golden Globes red carpet. Thousands of white and different colored microflowers formed a watercolor that hypnotized and seduced in equal parts. She could well have been part of Queen Marie Antoinette's cast of dresses. Because ultimately, there is nothing new in the fashion industry, only what many have forgotten.
