What Women Wore to the Revolution: 1770s-1840s
Three extraordinary women. One connecting thread.
This four-part course traces the evolution and revolution of Euro-American women’s fashion from the 1770s to the 1840s through the lens of three of history’s most iconic figures: Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), Jane Austen (1775-1817), and a young Queen Victoria (1819-1901). Despite living in different times and places, all three women influenced and reflected pivotal moments in fashion’s trajectory from courtly artifice to revolutionary reinvention, from Regency refinement to moral propriety and industrial innovation. Throughout this course we will learn to date and identify these changing fashions while learning about these three remarkable women and the times during which they lived, all of which have left an indelible mark on the fabric of history and our imaginations to this very day.
Class Descriptions
The Queen of Fashion: Marie Antoinette 1770s-1780s (January 18th, 2026)
No other figure in the history of Euro-American fashion is arguably more iconic than the “The Queen of Fashion” Marie Antoinette. In this class, we will step into Marie Antoinette’s public and private world at Versailles where the young queen harnessed fashion as a form of both political power and personal expression. From the towering pouf hairstyles and highly structured gowns shew wore at court to the stripped down chemise gowns worn in the intimacy of her private abode the Petit Trianon, we will examine how fashion cemented Marie Antoinette's legacy as one of the most memorable—and misunderstood— women in history. In celebration of the V&A's exhibition Marie Antoinette Style and Marie Antoinette's enduring influence today, we will go "behind the seams" to uncover the truth behind the legend.
The Queen of Fashion is Dead: Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution, 1789-1799 (January 25th, 2025)
If Marie Antoinette is history’s greatest fashion icon—she is also its most tragic. In this class, we will examine the downfall of the Queen of Fashion and the French monarchy during the political and societal upheaval of the French Revolution, when the clothing one wore could be the matter of life and death. From the opulent excess of the royal court to the austerity of revolutionary ideals, we will examine how shifting social values of liberty and loyalty were reflected in the fabric and form. At the heart of this transformation was the groundbreaking chemise gown, a simple, white muslin dress that became charged with meaning. First popularized by Marie Antoinette in the pre-Revolutionary era when its informality caused a public scandal, she would wear a version of the dress to her death by guillotine in 1793. In the aftermath, the corset-free gown evolved to become a symbol of revolution in and of itself, becoming an emblem of democratic and "natural" Neo-Classical beauty ideal and the changing roles of women—and fashion—at the beginning of a new era.
Style, Sense, and Sensibility: Jane Austen's Regency, 1800-1825 (February 1st, 2026)
In this class, we step out of Marie Antoinette’s France and into the real and storied world of Jane Austen’s Regency England where “empire”-waisted gowns and Kashmiri “cashmere” shawls, reveal as much about the post-Revolution landscape as the beloved author's novels themselves. Despite the countries being at war for centuries, British and French fashions were in constant conversation with one another. And when Jane Austen began publishing books at the dawn of the new century, she—and by extension the characters she imagined—inherited a world fashioned by Neo-Classical ideals and altered by decades of radical change. Through excerpts from Austen’s works, her personal correspondence, and visual examples of fashionable dress, we’ll uncover how style and storytelling merged to shape the elegance, restraint, and romanticism of this period that continues to captivate us to this very day. This class is purposefully timed with the release of Season 4 of Bridgerton (January 29th, 2026) which, despite its quasi-historical setting, you can now watch with a fresh and questioning eye for accuracy.
The Return of the Corset, the Rise of a Queen: A Young Queen Victoria, 1825-1849 (February 8th, 2026)
Women might have entered the nineteenth century corset-free but it was not to last. In our fourth and final class, we will explore the gradual return of fashion's artificiality as it emerged in the latter half of the 1820s and evolved within the early decades of Queen Victoria's reign which began in 1837. Ruling Great Britain for sixty-three years, the queen is perhaps most associated with the later years of her reign where she is depicted as regal, yet staunch and in perpetual mourning for her beloved husband Albert who died in 1861. But when she first came to the throne, she was just eighteen years of age. Under public scrutiny from the start, fashion played no small role in how the young queen navigated her new and critical role as head of one of the greatest military and colonial powers in the world. From popularizing bridal white to setting a standard for strict moral propriety in dress, we examine how Queen Victoria both shaped and reflected the changing fashions of a period of rapid technological innovation and change.
About your instructor
Cassidy Zachary is a fashion historian, published author and professional podcaster. She is co-founder, creator and host of the podcast Dressed: The History of Fashion. She is also the founder of the popular blog turned Instagram account @The_Art_of_Dress where every week she shares her passion for fashion history with over 370,000 followers around the globe. In addition to co-authoring the book Fashion and the Art of Pochoir, she has contributed to numerous publications on fashion history and has lectured on the topic throughout the United States. Her work is cited in Vogue, The New York Times, and WWD among many publications.