Boudoir – The Court Dress of Russia.3: children’s style

Welcome to Boudoir! Originally I planned to write about some other topics, but yesterday I accidentally run  through some Russian topics, and that gave me the idea to present the Russian court dress again – but this time the children’s version.

Russian court dresses not only changed according to the wearer’s rank, but also to the age. The late 19th century was the time when children started to have their own clothing – before that they were dressed like „little adults”. Age was especially important for a girl – it’s enough to take a look at the length of the dress and the hairstyle: girls under the age of 16 wore shorter skirts and their hair were made into ponytail, plait, etc., instead of a bun. The Russian court gowns also expressed this through their style: the dresses for young ladies were different from the „adult version”. However, I have to mention that this difference seems to emerge only in the „late court dress era”, around the 1890s. Thanks to the photographs, at least two different types on „youngster court gown” is known.

The first one is very similar to a real court dress, as it differs only in a few things. The dresses were shorter and the ornaments were also more simple or totally omitted. The two parts of the gown – the upper part and the skirt – were blended into one piece, and only a belt referred to the original design. This kind of court gown was worn by the daughters of the Tsar in 1904 and 1911, and also by Princess Tatyana Konstantinovna.

 

The second type means the one worn by Grand Duchess Mariya Pavlovna the younger and Grand Duchess Yelena Vladimirovna. The sleeves of this version were not the usual long ones, so characteristic of the Russian court dresses, but short and puffed. The body part itself also was more simple – without rich embroidery and the fourfold particion. Both of the dresses look very light and comfortable.

by Alla