Robe à la Polonaise

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The term robe à la polonaise is often applied to any late-eighteenth-century dress with back drapery, but it should be reserved for a dress with a fitted anglaise back and a skirt that can be drawn up on interior tapes into swags. These light, informal dresses enjoyed great popularity for daywear in the late 1770s and 1780s. "Polish" fashion had appeared earlier in honor of Queen Maria Leczinska, who was a Polish princess before she married Louis XV. The "Polish" styles consisted mainly of gowns trimmed with fur or a brocaded fur pattern. Camisoles, caracos, bonnets, and even men’s frock coats were also called à la polonaise at the height of the fashion in 1780.

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