Court train, First Empire
From the Chateau de Malmaison Costume Collection app:
“This court train was found at the residence of the descendants of the family of Empress Josephine’s son, Prince Eugene. It is a different type of train, not silk or tulle but velvet, and has extensive embroidery along the edges. The etiquette established under the Empire encouraged the use of such heavy, precious fabrics as Napoleon wished to revitalise the fabric manufacturing industry in Lyon.”
(Source: fripperiesandfobs)
Skirt with train worn by Empress Josephine, First Empire
From the Chateau de Malmaison Costume Collection app:
“This sumptuously decorated skirt with silver embroidery and matching motifs in blue silk and silver and gold cannetille formed part of a court outfit, the bodice of which is now missing.”
(Source: fripperiesandfobs)
Court dress and train owned by Empress Josephine, First Empire
From the Chateau de Malmaison Costume Collection app:
“This court outfit, sumptuously embroidered with lotus flowers in cannetille, gold paillons and glass cabochons would have taken hundred of hours of work to create. The designer may have been the marchand de mode Louis-Hippolyte Leroy who supplied all the courts of Europe and who was chosen to design the costume for Napoleon’s coronation in 1804. This commission established his reputation though Napoleon was known to complain to him about the size of his invoices.”
(Source: fripperiesandfobs)
Court dress attributed to Empress Josephine, after 1810
From the Chateau de Malmaision Costume Collection app:
“This silk tulle dress is exquisitely embroidered with motifs of carnations and other flowers in silver thread. It is most probably an example of ‘remontage’ (refitting): the bust does not match Josephine’s measurements exactly and has almost certainly been adjusted to fit someone else. Indeed, Josephine often ‘reviewed’ her wardrobe: once a year she would go through her closets and give away the garments she no longer wore to her entourage.”
(Source: fripperiesandfobs)
First Consul jacket owned by Napoleon Bonaparte, 1800
From the Chateau de Malmaison Costume Collection app:
“This sumptuously embroidered jacket was given by the city of Lyon to the First Consul in 1800. He wore it on April 18, 1802 at the Te Deum ceremony held at the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris after the signing of the Concordat. Napoleon took it with him to St. Helena. He gave it to the young Hortense Bertrand (daughter of an Empire general) who, when she was older, passed it on to Prince Victor Napoleon, grandson of King Jerome, Napoleon’s youngest brother.”
(Source: fripperiesandfobs)
