Making a 1680's Mantua: The Mysterious Gown Nobody's Ever Made!

Would you attempt to recreate a gown that hasn't been made in 350 years? It sounds CRAZY! But after years of lusting after the "Woman Walking in the Country" fashion plate from the 1680's, I finally girded my loins and decided to tackle this mysterious mantua! While we do have several extant mantuas left, they are both from about 10-20 years AFTER this fashion plate was created. And much like other centuries, a lot can change in construction in 20 years. In this video, I will attempt to reverse-engineer this gown using the later-period style, my knowledge of how this gown developed, and some good old-fashioned gumption. One of the reasons people don't recreate from this era is lack of resources and knowledge--so I wanted to show my though process, my logic, and my construction. The fails as well as the wins. And while no, we don't actually know how this gown was cut and pleated (because they were taken apart and changed into other things), we can make some intelligent assumptions. And come out with a result that, while not perfect, is a fairly good representation of the fashion plate! Resources: I used "The Cut of Women's Clothes" by Norah Waugh for construction tips and the original--later--pattern This gown is based on one of the fashion plates from Recueil des modes de la cour de France, which dates between 1670-1693 *CONTENT NOTE: some of these plates reflect the colonialist sentiments of the time and depict both POC in positions of servitude as well as some very a