Ensemble

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

By the early eighteenth century, the skirts of men's formal coats became so generous that a woman observed in The Spectator, "The skirt of your fashionable coats forms as large a circumference as our petticoats." Drawings and paintings of the period reveal the feminine silhouette achieved by such full-skirted coats. The men's coats, which fall to the knees, almost conceal the breeches, a feature that serves to enhance their dresslike appearance.

The Costume Institute

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute's collection of more than thirty-three thousand objects represents seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.

Metropolitan Museum of Art