Mantua (clothing)
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A mantua was an article of women's clothing worn in the late 17th century and 18th century. Initially a loose gown, the later mantua was an overgown or robe typically worn over stays, stomacher and ei
Mantua and petticoat of bizarre silk brocade, British, c. 1708 (MET)
Robe à la française, silk, pigment, linen. British, c. 1740s. Costume Institute: Metropolitan Museum of Art 1995.235a, b.
Robe à la polonaise, silk plain weave with supplementary warp- and weft-float patterning. France, c. 1775. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, M.70.85.
A 1750s court mantua showing the stylized back drapery (MET)
Banyan (clothing)
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A banyan is a garment worn by European men and women in the late 17th and 18th century, influenced by the Japanese kimono brought to Europe by the Dutch East India Company in the mid-17th century. "Ba
Mantua (clothing)
…skirt cut separately, the mantua hung from the shoulders to the floor (like dresses of earlier periods). It started as the female version of the men's banyan, worn for "undress" wear. Gradually the mantua developed into a draped and pleated dress and eventually evolved into a dress worn looped and draped up…
Nicholas Boylston in a brilliant green banyan and a cap, painted by John Singleton Copley, 1767.
Fitted banyan, 1750–1760
Sir Isaac Newton painted by James Thornhill, 1709–1715. Note T-shaped cut without a shoulder seam.
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