#panniers – @holyfunnyhistoryherring on Tumblr

I noticed a lot of people in the tags on the court panniers post talking how very flat the profile was from the side

In the interests of accuracy, panniers weren’t ALWAYS that flat front-to-back. The link on the reblog states,

The earliest panniers would be essentially hung from the body and formed a bell-shape to dresses. Later versions were flatter and simply attached to the waist.

Here is a picture of a dress from 1778 with much more moderate panniers (not the enormous court panniers), as seen from the side:

You can see that even without the overskirt in the back, the silhouette is much rounder from the side.

Likewise, here’s a ‘robe volante’ from the 1730s:

#18th century #panniers #historic fashion