Finery down to a fine art

The Impressionists adored clothes. They delighted in strapontins, polonaises and paletots; fans, hats and umbrellas were an extra treat. They were keen on couture, but they didn’t restrict themselves to painting grand ladies; it was the golden age of flânerie, and Paris had been transformed from a higgledy-piggledy labyrinth into an elegant public space of boulevards and parks. The artists got out of their studios and started studying the people in action.

Debra Mancoff looks at their paintings with a dressmaker’s eye. She can tell you not only what the outfits are made of, but also what’s under them, who made them and how they have held their shape despite the heat of an Impressionist picnic. She is fascinated by the technology of the clothes — the stays, the hoops, the crinolines that went into each silhouette. She notices an ingenious internal pulley system built into the dress in Renoir’s ‘The Swing’: ‘The white overdress has tapes inserted into the seams in order to allow the wearer to draw them up for a graceful, draped effect that adds volume without bulk.’