18th century women's fashions?

Question

I'm talking about women of noble heritage, women of the "ton". Can anyone help me with this what did they wear? ruffles? corsets? What colors were popular? good pictures to help me?

THANKS!

Answer 1

Wikipedia is quite good on this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1700-1750_i...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1750-1795_i...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1795-1820_i... (great change here)

Yes, the women wore corsets.  Some of the dandified men wore them too, as the Prince Regent did when he got fat.

Here's an excellent resource for all kinds of information:

http://www.costumes.org/history/100pages... (includes wigs)

http://www.marquise.de/en/1700/i_basis.s...

http://www.marquise.de/en/1700/howto/18f...

http://www.earthlydelights.com.au/baroqu...

http://www.oldandsold.com/articles09/clo...

Answer 2

  Corsets were a 19th Cent. item.   Women wore STAYS, which are a fore runner of the corset.  They were similar, boned to keep the posture straight, but were not to hold the waist in.  they provided a little support for the breast, because they ended at the base of the breast, but that was not there function.

  The term "loose woman" comes from the fact that proper women always wore stays, while low class women and whores did not.