Beauty & The Beast. How Would They Have Looked In Costumes Of The 18th Century?

Illustration for Beauty and the Beast by Walter Crane. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1874. Image: Wikimedia Commons

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Definitely, this is a fantasy about Beauty and the Beast in the real setting of the 18th century and also ...a little bit of a fancy of the past based on Disney movie "Beauty and the Beast" (2017), starring Emma Watson (Belle) and Dan Stevens (Beast). The costumes created by Jacqueline Durrand, help telling the story of more like an updated, more contemporary Belle and her romance with the Beast. 

Looking at the great costumes in the movie, I wanted to continue the story of a real 18th century outfits and imagining how ... How would a Beauty and the Beast wear Rococo fashion costumes? Sure this would be a reflection of not only the movie and fairy tale, but also of the costumes of the 18th century, which have been imaginary "picked up" according to the movie. 

What's about the movie, its production designer, the director and also costume designer Jacqueline Durrand, were putting a story set in 18th century France.  They wanted to bring to it this feeling of history. 18th century fashion fashion plates, depictions of nobles and peasants were the great source. Those elements of 18th century were added to Belle's costumes. Historical elements, like pockets, for instance were derived from 18th century and combined with a twist of a Disney "Beauty and the Beast" world. [6.] 
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Undoubtedly, the transformation of the Beast in a movie is very interesting. He starts off with this really crazy cape, and just before the end when he is doing the dance with Belle, he is pretty much wearing sort of clothes that an 18th-century aristocrat would wear. But he is just a Beast. [6.] 

Dan Stevens, in the beginning of the movie, is done up like the prince. He has a coat that is completely covered in Swarovski crystals. It is quite an extraordinary beginning for him — just immediately before he turns into a Beast. And indeed, it was actually a thing in the 18th century that men had jeweled clothes.  Diamond-studded coat for a prince was made of thousands of Swarovski crystals. His coat in the movie is embroidered with phantasmagorical animals, like wolves and dragons to show that he is kind of the dark side. [6.] 

And that is the ultimate tale! So let's take a look at the fairy-tale and also the real outfits of the 18th century, which I have chosen for the imagined wearers in the Rococo fashion era!

​Tale as old as time
Tune as old as song
Bittersweet and strange...

"Winter turns to Spring,
famine turns to feast,
nature points the way,
nothing left to say,
Beauty and the Beast." [4.]

Variants of the tale are known across Europe. Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy-tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740. The costumes that I chose for Beauty and the Beast come from the 60's of the 18th century. And they show a certain amount of time since the creation of the story and the wearing of the costumes. This is also in line with the vision of the movie. 
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But the story itself is very old and in some respects archetypal. Fairy-tales like Beauty and the Beast can be traced back thousands of years, according to researchers at universities in Durham and Lisbon. Using techniques normally employed by biologists, academics studied links between stories from around the world and found some had really ancient roots. They found some tales were older than the earliest literary records, with one dating back to the Bronze Age. [2.] 

And then, the stories had been thought to date back to the 16th and 17th centuries. 

Belle's Canary Yellow Dress 

Dress Date:ca. 1760 Culture:British Medium:silk, linen, cotton Location: The MET Image: Public Domain

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This monochrome, but brightly canary yellow gown definitely would suit every Belle of 18th century. The bright color is one of the 18th century fashion features that reflected the influence of China. Such a gown guaranteed to catch anyone's attention across a room!  This exceptionally well-preserved robe à la française with trimmings represents the apogee of the form. The absence of ornament, other than basic ruffles, makes this a perfect example of 18th century silhouette and style. 

The classification of women's dresses at this period is, however, a matter of some difficulty. Scholars have suggested a general division into "open" gowns and "closed" gowns, while acknowledging that such terms were never used at the time. The closed gown was a dress consisting of a bodice and petticoat with no opening in the front of the skirt. The more characteristic open gown had a gap in the front of the skirt, in the shape of an inverted V, which allowed the petticoat to be seen beneath. This petticoat was sometimes quilted and sometimes embroidered even more lavishly than the skirt itself. [1.]  This time the yellow dress is showing a perfect match of petticoat and a material of an open gown. 

There was a similar arrangement of the bodice, which had a gap in front filled in by means of a stomacher shaped like a shield and stiffened with pasteboard or busks. It was often heavily embroidered or decorated with a series of bows decreasing in size from top to bottom. The bodice was usually laced behind, and stiffened with whalebone. [1.]  

The characteristic 18th century sleeve ended just above or just below the below and was wide enough for the chemise-sleeve to emerge from it, with its ruffle of lace. Sometimes the ruffles were double or treble, the upper ones being slightly shorter so as to display the lace to better advantage. It was so-called "pagoda-sleeve" as a reference to influence of China. Also it was very fashionable to match the lace on the ruffle with that on the cap and tucker. The latter was the white, frilled edging to the bodice, originally part of the shift but often sewn on separately. [1.] 

The Belle's dress in the movie looks a lot simpler than suit worn by the Beast. That's why I chose the most simplest one for a Beauty of the 18th century. 
And now let's look at the Beast after his miraculous transformation!

The Beast Turns Into A Charming Prince 

For three-quarters of the 18th century there was no essential change in the fashionable menswear. Suit was almost the same as in the middle years of the reign of Louis XIV. Male costume consisted of coat, waistcoat and breeches. The coat was close-fitting to the waist and then flared out in skirts of varying length. The coat was either collarless or was provided with a narrow, upright band. There was a row of buttons down the front of the coat, but most of these were left unfastened. [1.] 

By the 1760's in essence the change consisted of a decreasing emphasis on the french Court styles and increasing adoption of English simplicity. Coats were plain, had narrower cuffs and the skirts were sometimes cut away in front for ease on horseback. [1.] 
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Beneath the coat was the waistcoat. In the early 18th century the waistcoat was almost as long as the coat and, like it, was furnished with buttons all the way down. 
Knee-breeches were universally worn throughout the century. They were closed below the knee with three or four buttons.

Neckwear (​cravat) continued, without much variation, the tradition of the late 17th century. From about 1740 younger men began to wear a stock, consisting of a piece of linen or cambric sometimes stiffened with pasteboard and buckled behind. Court suits were supplemented with the so called "jabot" - an ornamental frill or ruffle on the front of a shirt, typically made of lace. 

And, of course, that all the men in court wore a powdered wigs with tails. Only the Beast in a movie is seen wearing a hairstyle, made in a 18th century wig-style, but from natural hair. 

The Ending ...

A celebration is held in the ballroom with all the castle subjects and villagers, including Maurice and LeFou, joining. Belle and the Prince share a dance, wherein Belle asks the Prince if he can grow a beard. Garderobe and Mrs. Potts sing while Cadenza plays the music over the dance. And they all lived happily ever after. [7.] 

"​Tale as old as time
Song as old as rhyme
Beauty and the Beast" [4.] 

References & Further Reading: 
1. Laver J. Costume & Fashion: A Concise History. - London: Thames and Hudson, 1995. 
​2. www.bbc.com/news/uk-35358487
3. www.pitt.edu/~dash/beauty.html
4. genius.com/Audra-mcdonald-beauty-and-the-beast-finale-lyrics
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQQfGqR3n0U
​6. fashionista.com/2017/03/beauty-and-the-beast-2017-dress-costumes
7. www.imdb.com/title/tt2771200/plotsummary​
8. collections.lacma.org/node/214641
9. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/79220

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