30 Day Romanov Challenge - Day 6 : Favourite Dress/Outfit.
Russian Court Dress
“At all ceremonies at foreign courts where court dress was required, the Russian ladies always made a striking impression. All the other court dresses consisted of a train attached to the shoulders of an ordinary ball-dress. The Russian ladies without fail drew all eyes with the beauty and richness of the cut of our national dress. The kokoshnik and veil. The richly embroidered dress of historic cut with a train and the large quantity of precious stones could not but create an impression.” Maria Bock, Maid-of-honour to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna
In 1834 the nature of female court dress was reglamented by a special decree that formes part of the legal codes of the Russian Empire. To give dress national “colouring”, use was to be made of some of the specific and recognisable details found in folk costume : very long slitted sleeves hanging down almost to the knees, very definite rich decor and a strip with buttons, as on the Russian Sarafan, and a vertical line in the centre. Such dress consisted of a bodice, a very open but tightly waisted skirt and a removable train. This decree set ou the cut of the dress, the colour of the velvet of wich it was made and even the gold and silver embroidered patterns used to adorn it - and each of these was different for ladies of a different ranks.
Lady-in-waiting and ladies of the bedchamber has dresses of green velvet with gold embroidery, matching the embroidery on court uniform as worn by their male equivalents. The Empress’s own maids-of-honour wore dresses of scarlet velvet, while the governesses of the imperial daughters wore blue velvet of a slightly palr shade. Ladies without a rank at court who were invited to receptions had to wear dresses of the same style but made up in other fabrics with different embroidery. The official toilet was finished off with a Kokoshnik with a veil of lace or net for ladies or a fillet for unmarried girls..
Empress Maria Feodorovna - Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna - Empress Alexandra Feodorovna - Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna - Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mavrikievna - Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana Nikolaevna.
At the Russian Court Palace and Protocol in the 19th century.
“The Russian court dress was exceedingly picturesque and was donned for all bigger occasions. It consisted of amply cut velvet robes over a tablier of white satin; the shape, with its train, and wide, long-hanging sleeves, had something medival about it. These robes were heavily embroidered in silver or gold and were of every colour of the rainbow; the richest of all were of cloth of gold or silver. A halo-shaped cocoshnic with a veil hanging from beneath it inevitably accompanied this costume, so that every woman appeared to have been crowned. This unity of attire made all Russian court gatherings uniquely picturesque, saturating them with colour and brilliance unlike anything else; veritable pictures out of the “Thousand and One Nights,” Byzantine in splendour, with all the mysterious gorgeousness of the East. In those days the processional entry of the Russian Imperial family into festive hall or saint-haunted church was a picture once seen never to be forgotten.” Marie, Queen of Roumania “The Story of My Life”.
