Rose Bertin

Marie-Jeanne Rose Bertin (2 July, 1747, Abbeville, Picardie, France - 22 September, 1813, Epinay sur Seine) was the French milliner and modist to Queen Marie Antoinette. She was the first celebrated French fashion designer, and is widely credited with having brought fashion and "haute couture" to the forefront of popular culture.

Bertin apprenticed at an early age with a modist (clothing creator). She opened her own clothing shop -Le Grand Mogol- in 1770 and quickly found customers among influential noble ladies.

When Marie Antoinette arrived in France from Austria, she embraced France's new styles and fashions as one way to show her sincere dedication to her new country. She was introduced to Bertin in 1772. Twice a week, soon after Marie Antoinette's coronation, Bertin would present her newest creations for the young queen and spend hours discussing her creations. The Queen adored her wardrobe and was passionate about every detail, and Bertin, as her milliner, became her confidante and friend.

In the mid-18th century, French women had begun to "pouf" (raise) their hair with pads and pomade and wore oversized luxurious gowns. Bertin used and exaggerated the leading modes of the day, and created poufs for Marie Antoinette with heights up to three feet. The pouf fashion reached such extremes that it became a period trademark, along with decorating the hair with ornaments and objects which showcased current events. Working with Léonard, the Queen's royal hairdresser, Bertin created a coiffure that became the rage all over Europe: hair would be accessorized, stylized, cut into defining scenes, and modeled into shapes and objects---ranging from recent gossip to nativities to husbands' infidelities, to French naval vessels such as the "Belle Poule", to the pouf "aux insurgents" in honor of the American Revolutionary War. The Queen's most famous coif was the "inoculation" pouf that she wore to publicize her success in persuading the King to be vaccinated against smallpox.

Marie Antoinette also called upon Bertin to dress up dolls in the latest fashion as gifts for her sisters and her mother, the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, this dolls were called "Pandoras", and can be made of wax, wood or porcelain, there were the little ones the size of a common doll toy, or the big ones as big or half as a real person, were in vogue until the aparition of the fashion magazines.

Called "Minister of Fashion" by her detractors, Bertin was the mind behind almost every new dress commissioned by the Queen. Dresses and hair became Marie Antoinette's personal expression vehicles, and Bertin clothed the Queen from 1770 until her dethronement in 1792. Bertin became a powerful figure at court, and she witnessed--and sometimes effected--profound changes in French society. Her large, ostentatious gowns ensured that their wearer took at least three times as much space as her male counterpart, thus making the female figure an imposing, not passive, presence. Her creations also established France as the center of the fashion industry, and from then on, dresses made in Paris were sent to London, Venice, Vienna, St. Petersburg and Constantinople. The inimitable Parisian elegance established the worldwide reputation of French couture.

Under the Queen's generous patronage, Bertin's name became synonymous with the sartorial elegance and excess of Versailles. Bertin's close relationship with the Queen provided valuable background into the social and political significance of fashion at the French court. The frequent meetings between the queen and her modist were met, however, with hostility from the lower classes, given Bertin's high prices: her gowns and headdresses would easily cost twenty times what a skilled worker of the time earned in a year.

During the French Revolution, when many of her noble customers were being executed or were fleeing abroad, Bertin moved her business to London. For a while, she was able to serve her old clients among the "émigrés", and her fashion dolls continued to circulate to other European capitals, as far away as St. Petersburg. She eventually returned to France in 1795, where Joséphine de Beauharnais became a customer for a little while, but found that the fashion excesses of the era had waned after the French revolution ended.

As the 19th century dawned, Bertin transferred her business to her nephews and retired. She died in 1813 at her house in Epinay sur Seine.

Quotes

* "There is nothing new except what is forgotten."

References

'La modiste de la reine' by Catherine Guennec. 2004 Editions Jean Claude Lates. ISBN 84-89367-03-05