SLOW FASHION: PANDORA DOLLS AND THE HISTORY OF FASHION ADVERTISING

Sew What | Natalie Scola

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Fashion permeates modern culture – from Instagram to magazines, new styles are visible and accessible – especially with the popularity of online shopping during a pandemic!

How did people learn about fashion trends before social media or the rise of magazines and fashion advertisements?

From the 14th to 18th century, dolls known as Pandoras or poupées de mode, were miniature dolls dressed in the latest fashions and sent across Europe to share new fashion trends.

Pandora dolls are fascinating bits of history because they show the importance of fashion through the centuries and provide a point of reference for the fashion of the day. These dolls were not intended as children’s playthings, rather they were important economic and cultural items.

As early as the 14th century, there are records of the royal families of France sending dolls to other European courts to promote French fashion and strengthen diplomatic relationships. The Italian Marie de Medici, lover of all things fashionable, received fashion dolls by the French king Henry IV before their marriage so she could learn how the French dressed. The use of these dolls in royal and aristocratic circles marked them as something exclusive, and helped established France as a center of fashion.

By the 17th century, these dolls had become an established part of the fashion trade. The 18th century saw the peak of the doll’s popularity; it was during this time that they became known as “Pandora” dolls, although the origins of this name are unknown. French dressmakers sent Pandoras with their designs to England, Germany, Italy and Spain. One of the oldest fashion dolls is displayed in the Livrustkammaren (Royal Armory Museum) in Stockholm. She has clothes made of silk which are embroidered with gold and silver thread. Her wig is made from real human hair and is styled in an elaborate coiffure. The high quality of the doll’s clothes and the skill present in the creation of the doll itself is proof of the elite status of these objects.  

Fashion doll c. 1590 in the collection of the Royal Armoury, Stockholm. Source.

The mass popularity of Pandoras in the 18th century aligned with cultural changes that made fashion and wealth more accessible. The beginning of the 18th century saw improvements in travel conditions through a growing network of public transportation systems. This led to increased mobility, allowing the Pandora dolls to travel further and with greater ease. The emergence of a middle class with increased disposable income competed with the aristocratic elite. In England, sumptuary laws which had been in place since the 14th century, dictated who could wear what based on social position. By the 17th century, the laws had weakened and were eventually abolished, giving people much more freedom to choose what they wore and helped increase the popularity of the Pandoras in the country. With the improved production of luxury fabrics and an evolving economy, Europe saw the origins of what we now recognize as a fashion market.

Most Pandora dolls were made of wood, with their heads and bodies turned from a single piece. Some had arms and legs made of jointed wood while others had limbs of wax or linen. Their faces were painted and the most expensive dolls had glass eyes. Some had painted hair or realistic wigs made from flax or wool! Reflecting accurate, new hairstyles was just as important as showing new clothes.

A Pandora doll’s clothing reflected the contemporary wardrobe. For women, this included:

• A chemise or shift (the undergarment worn closest to the skin)
• Stockings
• Stays (fully boned, laced bodices worn under the dress to create a specific body shape)
• Panniers or other dress supports (undergarments worn to extend the skirt at the side or back)
• Pockets (worn tied around the waist and accessed through slits in the outer gown)
• Petticoats
• The outer gown
• Stomacher (decorative, triangular panel that covered the front opening of the gown)
• Accessories such as shoes, hats, gloves, and jewellery

 

This Pandora comes with an incredible amount of accessories - 23 in total! Source.

So, who were these dolls made for and who bought them? Dressmakers and tailors would send dolls to different countries so other dressmakers and tailors could copy new styles and patterns. In this way, they acted as advertisement for the dressmakers, showing off their skills and talent. Pandoras were also used by wealthy customers. Fashion, especially the fashion worn by the upper classes, was expensive; there was no such thing as fast fashion in the 18th century! With consumer goods being available to a wider range of society, the upper classes were intent on demonstrating their wealth through visible goods such as clothes; only the newest designs in the best fabrics would be worn. Pandoras offered customers the ability to view what they were going to purchase, to feel the fabric and see the design in a miniature mock-up. The clothes worn by these small mannequins were constructed exactly as full-sized clothes would be and included every construction detail, demonstrating the immense skills of dressmakers and tailors.

This doll's jacket may have been made for a Pandora doll. It is made of a beautiful - and expensive floral silk. The jacket is lined and the back of the jacket (bottom) is pattern matched, showing the skill of the dressmaker. Source.

While Pandoras were generally small, about the size of modern toy dolls, some were made life-sized. Wealthy clients became interested in owning their own Pandoras, and began to collect both the smaller, travelling versions as well as the life-sized ones. It became popular to own a pair of dolls, one in court dress – the Grande Pandora – and one dressed in everyday wear – the Petit Pandora.  Life-sized dolls were not just the whim of the rich, but also served a practical purpose. Clothes made to a life-sized doll could be tried on by the recipient and help the dressmaker with the fitting process.  For dressmakers, life-sized Pandoras were the earliest version of modern store mannequins. Rose Bertin, dressmaker to Queen Marie Antoinette, sent wooden Pandora dolls to Austria to show French fashions to the Queen’s family. In her shop window, Bertin also made use of a life-size model of the Queen, displaying to the public the latest royal fashions and cementing Marie Antoinette’s image as a fashionista.

 

This Pandora, while missing a head, is a beautiful example of court dress (robe de cour) from the 1760s. Court dresses at this time were made of three parts: a boned bodice with a wide neckline; a mantua skirt which was long and narrow; and a train. The bottom picture shows the scale of the Pandora compared to life sized clothes. Source (top).Source (middle).Source (bottom).

Pandora dolls, despite looking like toys, were not meant to be played with. Their sole purpose was to display the latest fashion trends. Some women used Pandoras to commemorate their own wardrobes and lives. In England, Laetitia Clark Powell, created a series of 13 dolls which she dressed in miniature versions of her own wardrobe, including her wedding dress; some of these dolls survive today in the V&A.

 

Laetitia Clark Powell's Pandora replica of her wedding dress. Source.

While most dolls represented female figures, there also existed fashion dolls depicting men, boys and infants. However, the majority of Pandora dolls have not survived due to their construction: materials like wax and linen eventually break down with use. The Pandoras, once they served their original purpose, were handed down as family heirlooms and many probably made their way to nurseries to be used as playthings.

A miniature replica of a man's jacket, 1740-1760. Source.

The craze for new styles drove the popularity of the Pandora doll throughout the 18th century. The dolls were sent around Europe before being brought across the Atlantic to America. The arrival of Pandoras from Europe was such an exciting event that American newspapers would report on their arrivals, with some dressmakers even charging customers to view the doll! It is incredible to think that the dolls travelled so widely when travelling took significantly longer than it does today. The dolls were an excellent visual indication of French fashion, but they also acted as a diplomatic representation of France. Fashion was seen as such an important export that several times throughout history, it was noted that Pandora dolls were protected by a kind of diplomatic immunity. The War of The Spanish Succession (1701-1714) impacted relationships between England and France, hindering the export and import of goods with embargos. However, fashion was recognized as an essential good and was allowed safe passage. In 1704, the French writer Abbé Prevost recorded:

“By an act of gallantry which is worthy of being noted in the chronicles of history for the benefit of the ladies, the ministers of both courts granted a special pass to the mannequin, that pass was always respected, and during the times of greatest enmity experienced on both sides the mannequin was the one object which remained unmolested.”

Despite the popularity and the social and political relevance of the Pandora dolls, they fell out of use by the last decades of the 18th century, around the time that the first fashion magazines appeared. Better printing equipment, a low newspaper tax and increasing literacy rates made fashion magazines accessible and popular. Customers interested in the latest fashions no longer had to wait for dressmakers to replicate clothes in minutiae and ship them to different locations. Fashion magazines and plates were cheap and mass-produced. While fashion dolls continued to be made, they no longer held the popularity they once did.

It was not until the 20th century that the practice of travelling fashion dolls was revived. As World War II ended, France found itself supplanted by America as a leader of fashion. The couture industry was important economically but it also made up an important part of the French national cultural identity. To help revive the idea of French fashion, Robert Ricci – son of designer Nina Ricci – proposed a theatre production of fashion. The Théâtre de la Mode (Theatre of Fashion) was a touring exhibition of French fashion designs. With materials in limited supplies, all designs were made in miniature, mounded on 27.5” (70 cm) wire mannequins. Over 60 Parisian couturiers volunteered to produce new fashion designs, including Hermès, Balenciaga, Jeanne Lanvin and Pierre Balmain.

One of the sets for the Théâtre de la Mode for its 1946 tour in America. Source. 

Historic jewellery houses, including Van Cleef and Arpels and Cartier, contributed miniature jewellery. Hairdressers created individual hairstyles and milliners made miniature hats. Like the earlier Pandora dolls, there was an incredible level of detail in the clothes’ construction, with working zippers and miniature handbags that included even tinier wallets and makeup. The exhibition opened at the Louvre on March 28, 1945 and was extraordinarily popular: over 100,000 people attended, with ticket sales going to the war relief. The exhibition toured Europe and America, reestablishing Paris as a centre of fashion. Along the way, it revived the Pandora doll as a method of fashion communication.

Some of the fashion designs from the exhibition, showing the wire mannequins and the incredible detail in the construction of the outfits. Source.

Pandora dolls were a highly effective means of advertising fashion, providing customers with a degree of detail that modern advertising cannot match today – we rely on high quality photographs but that does not compare to the ability to touch fabric or even try on clothes. The Pandora dolls that survive are incredibly important cultural and historic items, allowing researchers to study the construction of clothes, especially when visual or written records are limited. With their array of fashionable wardrobes, Pandoras can be seen as the predecessor of modern fashion dolls like Barbie and American Girl. These modern fashion dolls have wardrobes and accessories and are marketed to the elite – American Girl dolls are infamously expensive. However, these modern dolls are still seen as toys, even though some are considered collector’s items. There is no modern equivalent for the Pandoras. At their height, Pandoras held a unique position in history, showing the intersection between fashion and the economy and demonstrating the importance of changing consumer culture.