Women’s bodices in the 1680s slowly evolved to be less revealing and cover more of the shoulders (Hill 411). This trajectory toward modesty is often credited to Madame de Maintenon, who had secretly married French king Louis XIV in 1683 and exercised a wide influence at court (Davenport 519). The Cunningtons describe the overall silhouette of the decade in their Handbook of English Costume in the Seventeenth Century (1972):

“A close-fitting bodice joined to a full gathered and trained skirt, open in front. The corsage, fitting round the neck behind and cut square or round, was edged with a border which was brought forward over the shoulders to converge in a V at the waist, where it might be secured by a ribbon band or narrow belt. The V gap was filled in by an embroidered stomacher ending in a point at the waist…. the stomacher might be replaced by an embroidered corset.” (175)

Bodice sleeves became elbow-length with the ruffled cuffs of the chemise visible (Davenport 519). Long trains became fashionable for overskirts (Cunnington 174). Anna Josepha Monialis gives a good idea of this look in her portrait (Fig. 1), where she holds up part of her long train in her right hand. A surviving 1680s bodice and skirt, though not open in the front, includes a triangular stomacher covered in metallic lace on the front of the bodice (Fig. 2).

Fabrics became heavier and their colors darker in comparison to past decades, as Milia Davenport explains in The Book of Costume (1948): “light colors were supplanted by darker, with the metal and fringe-trimmed, heavily upholstered brocade gowns of Mme de Maintenon’s time” (519). Anna Josepha Monialis’s gown shows some of those rich textiles (Fig. 1) and dense decoration of metallic laces, Venetian lace and embroidery. Eleonore Magdalena of the Palatinate (Fig. 3) also wears a brocade gown with added gold metallic lace and silver embroidered decoration. An unknown young woman from Seville, Spain (Fig. 4) exhibits equally luxe textiles and lace embellishments.

Rich contrasting brocade underskirts (Figs. 1, 9) were sometimes paired with the mantua and as François Boucher explains in A History of Costume in the West:

“From 1680 on, ornaments and trimming became more numerous: skirts and bodice fronts were covered with passementerie and embroidery and were dotted with ribbon bows.” (258-59)

The blue striped mantua in figure 6 features contrasting red bows in a line down the front of the stomacher. A drawing of a French woman (Fig. 9) shows ample red ribbon loops on her chemise cuffs.

As the overall silhouette narrowed, women’s hairstyles took on added height as well. The fontange, a tall tiered lace headdress, became a dominant style. Boucher explains its origin and evolution:

“Towards 1678, the fontanges hairstyle appeared. Originally a simple bow lifting the curled hair to the top of the head, it was transformed into a complex scaffolding of locks completed with a cap that crowned the head in a veritable architecture of muslin, lace and ribbons mounted on brass wire.” (262)

See an example from 1687 in figure 10 and others above (Figs. 5, 6, 8); note the woman doing needlework at home is dressed informally (Fig. 10) and wears a pinafore. The fontange became pervasive by the end of the decade as Madame Duchesse d’Orléans, lamented in her correspondence in 1687:

“It is not surprising that you are wearing fontanges because everybody here does from little girls seven years old to old women in their eighties, the only difference is that young people wear them in all colours, whereas their elders have only black or dark-coloured ones.” (quoted in Waugh Women 112)

Women were not often painted wearing fontanges, so our best evidence of them comes in costume prints and fashion drawings. From the prints we can also see that women’s shoes in the period seem to come to a thin blunt point.

In addition to the still-omnipresent pearl necklaces and pearl drop earrings (Fig. 11), a new trend in accessories appeared, namely the black patch:

“Tiny black patches made of satin, velvet, or leather were glued to face as beauty marks. Shapes ranged from simple dots to ornate stars, crescent moons, and hearts.” (Hill 414)

Again in the 1680s these patches were rarely worn in portraits, but feature in all the fashion prints of the period (Figs. 5-6, 8-10).

Louis XIV’s marriage to Mme de Maintenon also affected fashionable trends in menswear as Boucher explains:

“After the King’s [Louis XIV] marriage to Madame de Maintenon, a note of gravity was to be added, and La Bruyère noted its effects in 1682: ‘Formerly a courtier had his own hair, wore doublet and breeches and wide cannons and was a libertine. This is no longer in favour: now he has a wig, a tight suit and plain stockings and he is fervently religious.’” (260)

A hand-colored costume print from 1687 gives a good impression of the overall effect (Fig. 1). Boucher elaborates further: “now long, severe, buttoned justaucorps, tight breeches and dark stockings were worn; gone was lace, except on the cravat and sleeves; gone were plumes, except for hats and, rarely, as edgings.” (260)

The Duke of Medinaceli (Fig. 2) models the long buttoned justaucorps and dark stockings, with lace only at the cravat and cuffs.

Justaucorps remained knee-length, but their cut became slightly more shaped with an emphasis on the waist (Cunnington 136). In Anton Domenico Gabbiani’s depiction of three white musicians at the Medici Court (Fig. 3), we can see this new waist emphasis particularly in the case of the seated man. While the Black young man at the right goes unmentioned in the work’s title, he also wears a version of the justaucorps, but in an eye-catching silver brocade fabric and without the shirt cuffs and lace cravat worn by the other men. He instead wears a silver collar, which likely refers to his enslaved status, and holds a parrot—both were likely included in the picture as an indication of wealth and status as was common in 17th-century portraiture (Baetjer).

Braid or metallic lace trim became the dominant form of decoration on the justaucorps, often arranged at the coat’s seams and edges (Waugh Men 55) as it was in the fashion print (Fig. 1) and the duke’s coat (Fig. 2).

Most men gave up facial hair preferring to appear clean-shaven (Davenport 518), but large full-bottomed wigs remained the standard, as mentioned above (Fig. 8). Daniel Delis Hill describes the look of the wig and the origin of the word periwig in the History of World Costume and Fashion (2011):

“Through the early 1680s, wigs were a mass of loose, irregular curls that fell low over the shoulders. In England, these were called periwigs, from the French word ‘perruque,’ meaning head of hair. The crowns were flat, usually with a casual treatment of the forelocks or bangs. From the mid-1680s into the eighteenth century, the crowns of wigs gradually increased in height and became longer and fuller with locks extending halfway down the torso in the front and back. These became known as full-bottomed wigs.” (406).

With such high wigs in vogue, hats were less frequently worn (Figs. 1, 9) and often instead carried under the arm. The crown of hats became lower, making them easier to hold under the arm (Boucher 262). At the same time the wide brims were raised, often on three sides in a forerunner of the soon-to-be-dominant tricorne hat (Fig. 1) (Hill 405).

A man’s look was completed with a few other essential accessories; foremost among them, the lace cravat cinched with a ribbon bow (Figs. 1-4, 8). Bullion-fringed gloves (Figs. 2-4, 6), walking sticks (Figs. 2, 7, 9) and swords (Figs. 1, 4, 9) were also commonly seen, baldricks (Fig. 4) and sashes were less common than in previous decades (Cumming 126).

At home men would remove their justaucorps and wear looser patterned silk robes, though still with their cravats, as you can see in Jacob Ferdinand Voet’s portrait of an unknown young nobleman (Fig. 10).

This of course has been a description of fashionable dress. Everyday men dressed rather differently and commentators at the time played up the discrepancy. The 1685 Factious Citizen explained to a fop how to pass as an ordinary citizen:

“Off with your clothes, your sword, wig and hat, put yourself nimbly into the a suit of black grogram below the knee, a broad-skirted doublet, a girdle about the middle, a short black cloak squirted down before with black taffety; a broad-brim’d hat, with a great twisted hat-band, with a rose at the end of it. Your hair is slink enough, and of precise cut, without your periwig.” (Cunnington 168-69)

As in previous decades, infants and babies were dressed in white gowns. Toddlers of both genders were dressed in gowns of different colors and patterns (Fig. 1). Elite children even wore silks and lace as in the portrait of Elizabeth Charlotte, Princess Palatine (Fig. 1) and her son and daughter. Both children are dressed in silk brocade gowns with what appears to be Venetian lace trimmed pinafores. As Anna Reynolds describes in In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion:

“she and her two children are depicted at the height of fashion, wearing luxurious silk woven with gold thread and lace in the style of Venetian gros point.” (212)

Older children of age 5 or 6 would be dressed in a similar fashion to their parents. Children’s portraits in some cases followed the conventions of their parents’ as well, as we can see in Caspar Smits portrait of John Arundell VIII, 3rd Baron Arundell of Trerice, which shows him alongside a likely enslaved Black companion (Fig. 2). The white boy’s outfit oddly features bare legs under his fringed coat, making it a departure from everyday dress when stockings would have been worn. Nicolaes Maes’ portrait of a mother and two children in a park (Fig. 3) similarly features costume-like dress with classical-style draperies and even Roman sandals on the young boy.