The Robe Fée is a much lesser known type of dress from the 18th century. Its characteristic features are the use of spangles embellished organza, of metallic lace, and the choice of only one pastel color. The fabric must be spun from spiderwebs, rigorously picked when still beaded with morning dew, because only then it can be assured that the final gown will glow with the eerie light we only find in dreams.
There are very few recordings of these gowns, as they used to appear to few, lucky ones, during special nights, when the veil between the world of fae and that of humans thins.
One of the stories of the fae realm tells of a girl who wanted to be presented at court, as her stepsisters, yet she did not own the right garment to be allowed access to Versailles. When she was very little, her mother became seriously ill and, knowing she had little left to live, she chose to gift those last months to the Queen of the Fairies, in exchange for her protection of the child she was leaving behind. She died that very night.
Fifteen years later, on the night of the ball, the Queen appeared to the heartbroken girl, dressed as she thought appropriate to not scare her, but we know how fairies tend to interpret human fashion…
The girl got to the ball, lost a slipper, and the rest even humans know. The Queen of the Fairies kept an eye on the girl for all the time she remained at court, appearing as an unearthly figure among the courtesans of Versailles. No one knew the name and the title of the mysterious great lady. She kept telling, when asked, but no one could remember after she was out of sight.
One day the lucky girl rejected the gift the fairy left her, because the King’s mistress could not walk with real dragonflies on her hair. So the mighty fairy left her protegée to her fate.
Of course human history has a very different tale for how Madame Du Barry got to court. But for one magic night one can allow themself to believe in fairytales!
Now, I really hope no one will ever copy and paste the first lines as reference. In case you did not get it from the talk of fairies, this is a made up story to make you dream a little, to lighten your day, and to make you understand how I came to the design of this dress.
The event
If you do 18th century costumes, or if you simply dream about wearing one, you probably know that once a year (more often, actually, i f we consider the other events as well) there is a costume event held in the Chateau de Versailles. THE palace. The one people keep comparing other palaces and gardens to, just like every pretty city with canals gets compared to Venice. And let me tell you, I have visited Caserta and Villa Pisani, and Linderhof. All those “the versailles of this place”. And no, nothing really can compare to the grandeur and the scale of the one and only. And as a proud Italian, I would really love to say that we have something just like V.
Whether you admire the grandeur of the Sun King and his patronage of the arts, or if you are a fan of Coppola’s Marie Antoinette movie, this event will be one of a kind for you. In no other place in the world you get the chance to celebrate your passion for history in one of its most emblematic homes, in an event that is open to anyone able to pay the ticket and present themselves in a historically inspired dress.
While the ghost of Louis XIV may frown upon us commoners stepping foot in his temple of glory and feeling part of its sparkling light, I prefer to think of Madame de Pompadour and Madame Du Barry smiling in seeing the palace finally opening its doors to anyone, while in their time they were often rejected due to their lacking pedigree.
This is Fetes Galantes: a magical night where you can dress up in 17th and 18th century inspired gowns and enjoy walking in one of the greatest things ever built by men.
Open to anyone, really?
Yes. I mean, yes and no. It kind of mimics the way once you could enter the palace if you had an appropriate dress, and so very few could afford to adhere to the dress code. In a similar way, today you “just need to pay”. And while back in the days swords, silk gowns and stays were needed to enter, nowadays they’ll let anyone with an amazon costume get in, despite the “quality costumes” requirement. But more on that later.
There are several tiers, with several activities. You are able to see them in the website of the event. Each year prices may differ, and you have to be ready to purchase yours within a very short amount of time. Ready or not for the new price.
For the 2024 event, tickets got sold out in a matter of hours, and in the following years a proper rush followed, with french locals complaining about the prices of even the lower tiers rising every time, and americans feeling the need to telle everyone they got tickets under every single post.
We got to the website and started refreshing when the clock struck the hour, and after one hour we got our hands on a couple of tickets. You usually get to pick a couple of activities, but the website was not able to withstand the amount of requests, so when we got in, we got the activities that were left.
There were issues with the website, and more tickets were released later. Some people also resell their tickets, when unable to go as planned, or just to resell them to higher prices. The organizers don’t seem to bother. But they don’t bother about lots of things. Anyway, I suggest you to think of these tickets as those for a concert that goes sold out very quickly, if you want to attend. And be prepared to spend more than you planned, for a different tier ticket. When we got in only the Marquis-Marquise ones were available (how fitting for someone who did the Mme de Pompadour dress, right?).
Our ticket was 190 euros per person, and it included access to the main rooms, a very short baroque music concert (that was not very well advertised on the place, so we got there five minutes late and lost half of it) and a historical dance lesson on the hall of mirrors. A glass of champagne upon arrival, and free wardrobe service. There is no dressing room, you need to get there ready!
Higher tiers have access to private tours of rooms that are not available for everyone to see during the party, some have more entertainment and activities, some have an open bar and a buffet. If I remember correctly, prices go up to 500 euros and more. But as I have not been interested in purchasing the higher end tickets, I really do not remember. It could be more.
So yes, you just need to get your hands on a ticket and a dress. But there is also the matter of the cost of traveling to Paris, with your costume in a huge suitcase, and then reaching Versailles, and finding a place to sleep. We kind of did everything on a budget this time. If I do not count the cost of the dress and the wig and the shoes and the accessories, that 190 euros ticket is accompanied by 160 euros of economy flight and two suitcases (from northern Italy), 129,25 euros for three nights in a very unpleasant and small airBnB in the area (half of the total, as we were in two). Roughly 50 euros more for traveling from and to the airports. I am not including the tickets of the activities we did during the other days, nor the food.
So my Fetes Galantes on a budget were around 530 euros, not counting the costume. If we think of the price of costume rental on a budget, we get at least to 750 euros. If you are making the dress yourself and want a pretty thing, the budget starts from that. So it’s not as cheap as one would think. I would not say how much I spent on supplies for my gown.
So while the ticket by itself was as expensive as one of the parties in Venice (where you do get to dine, have an open bar and places to seat as well, but it’s not Versailles), when I think if I want to go back, the real question is not if I want to spend an other 200 euros for a party in Versailles, but if it is worth to spend at least 750 (because you also need to eat the day after, the morning of the event and all the rest, and with parisian prices) for a five hours event where you do not get either to drink or sit, unless you get higher tiers. And you do end up feeling exhausted. Your feet will hurt, and you will be thankful for my suggestion to get a pair of ballet flats in your pockets.
Is it worth it?
Is it worth it to pay at least 750 euros for a 5 hours event where you may not get to sit or have water to hydrate yourself?
I do not have a straightforward answer yet. I am not sure I am interested in going back. But I am happy I went and I saw what goes on, how it is. I have had my answers to what it feels like. And though I am not sure the final price tag is completely worth it, it is worth having done the experience once, and being able to choose knowing what it is like.
I know, you are not liking this answer. It does not complete the image of the event, and I should be doing the influencer thing and say “it was just perfect, magnificent, how special and happy and lucky I am”. Being this honest will really not help me in getting any collaborations from this article, I know. But I value your trust more. And I do believe in telling people the bad things too, so they won’t get disappointed and blame me for creating unrealistic expectations. I hate when that happens to me.
So my advice is to go, if you have been daydreaming about it. At least once.
Things I liked
Seeing Versailles by night is something you can’t usually do, during a common parisian vacation. And seeing the fireworks from the windows of the galerie des glaces is something truly magical. Especially considering you can look at the fireworks without seeing much of the crowd behind you (more on that below).
Also, the dance lesson was lovely, and the dance demonstration with the impersonators was just sublime. For a moment I touched what I wanted from the event, for a moment I had the illusion, even though everything was under very strong lights, to ensure photos and videos came out properly throughout the evening.
And despite not being a people person, I loved meeting lots of other guests.
Things I did NOT like
This will be harsh. Yes, I have been priviledged to be able to go… why amd I complaining?
Well, because going for me required saving money for the dress and the rest for some time, and for years I could not afford it. Once I went, I had expectations. And even though the palace was everything I had already visited and loed, the experience itself lacked… care. I did NOT feel it was immersive, except in the moments mentioned above. Venice is not Versialles, but it is far more immersive, in my opinion.
Lights and phones
The goal of the event is to make money. Of course, there’s no fairytale in the real world. And if the money is used to upkeep the palace, well… alright. To make money you need people. If you want plenty of people, you need to promote yourself and not be picky.
To promote yourself you need people to make your event look desirable. So you need those phones clicking all the time, images flooding social media for weeks. And that is what happens all the time. It’s very hard to take a picture without a room full of phones. And to be true, I went there to also create material to promote my business, so I was among them. But there is a limit and there is taste.
If lights can not be dimmed to make metallic elements glisten like they would have back in the days, the always present iPhone really takes the rest of the magic away. I wish there was a “no phones” room.
Costumes
The more you know, the less you can enjoy.
If you love 18th century and hope to feel the magic, you probably won’t feel it.
There’s no circling around it: despite the demand of high quality costumes, the level of what is worn is very disappointing. This type of wig is on the head of at least 1/3 of the women. Usually matched by an amazon-quality costume, or a very badly fitted rented piece made with a tablecloth and worn with a hoopskirt instead of paniers.
And though I like that everyone can join, and I understand that among them there may be people who want to feel a dream for a night without having to study for years, and may have saved for as long as I have, to go. I also have to aknowledge that as long as the great majority of attenders can be ranked in that range of quality, people like me will be unable to enjoy the atmosphere and not encouraged to go through the struggle to join the event again, or to put the same amount of effort in preparing the outfit.
Crowds
The place is huge, but you need a lot of personnel to take care of crowds. So I understand that there is limited space. But it was quite crowded. I have head of someone really feeling sick or fainting the year before, because there was no water available, the heat was considerable and there was nowhere to sit. I have also heard that sitting on the floor was not allowed the year before, but luckly, around midnight, nobody came to make us stand up.
If you’re someone who does not enjoy crowded and loud noise spaces, this may not be for you.
Lack of care
Since the tickets went for sale, the whole experience was linked by the feel of lacking care on the other side. Issues we experienced seem to happen every edition, and they have not been fixed. So my guess is that the people organizing the event don’t really care: as long as they have a line of eagerly people ready to spend whatever they as, they don’t feel the urge to improve anything. So… you may start to understand why I felt like a chicken to be plucked and not a loved guest, and why I don’t wish to repeat the experience any time soon.
First of all, getting tickets is a nightmere. Prices are not communicated early on, and the tickets get for sale very quickly. The website is not usually able to withstand the amount of traffic (we needed one hour of F5 to get tickets, and others were just not allowed to access) and I have been told of people being able to purchase tickets while others had the “soold out” page on their screens. It’s the third year in a row now that it is like this.
Moreover, the directions to reach the concert were really not clear. There were two different concerts going on, and we were directed to the wrong one. Even though we got there early, crossing the whole wing to get to the place of the concert we booked took so long that we got there and the concert was basically over. We were 5 minutes late. The concert… lasting only 15 minutes. And this is not an exageration. Wow. Moreover, with the same ticket you could get to choose between two concerts, we did not know that the venue for the other one was a lovely, splendid hall (probably the chapel?) while we basically had to go to the stables (not the real stables,of course, but not a place as nice as the other).
So the feeling I got was that they wanted to give the very least they could, do the least effort.
Because in the end it’s Versailles. And people will go even if the service is debatable. They will spend any amount, even if the quality is only in the work done centuries ago.
Which is very sad. Going to an event like this and getting such a sad aftertaste is not something enjoyable.
What could be done?
I hate to criticise without giving ideas on how to improve things. So here is a list of what could be done to improve the experience.
- adding a no-phones section of the event, with dimmed lights. After a certain hour and until the fireworks, phones are prohibited, only official photographers are allowed. This would add a touch od mystery, and people would love to join even more to know how it is;
- add places to sit and get free water. Not in the hall of mirrors, away from the core of the event, but this is the bare minimum, in my opinion;
- if you can’t approve of the costumes, incentivate the good work. Have someone point out to the official photographers the people with the most convincing dresses, take them to a special corner, even hidden, to create short videos and photos that will be used to promote the next event. When people will ask “how did you end up there?!”, they will just reply “the lady liked my costume”. And it needs to be someone with a fashion history background who is not in the costuming world. This over the years will encourage people into directing their budgets and efforts in an effective direction.
That is if you care about these things, and the people attending.
How do you design something for Fetes Galantes?
I do not take all the trouble of making the gowns I make, spend time and money on them, just to fade in the crowd. So my first focus was on what I needed to do to make sure I was very visible.
Though my first intention was to go with the Madame de Pompadour dress, I felt it was not the right thing to make an impression the way I wanted. It is pretty? Yes. It looks very good in comparison to most other attempts at replicating it? It does. BUT it has two colors, one of which is quite dark, and it does not go with high hair. In a place where everyone has a grand panier or skyscrapers on their heads, I wanted something that could make an impression from afar as well. It is also an evening event, and it is a huge mix of many saturated colors.
So here is my personal recipe:
- when everything is dark and saturated, do something light and add some shine;
- when everything is tiring to the eye and in too many colors, do something monochrome, with subtle variations that appear only when getting close;
- when everything looks straight from the costume shop and too new, age the dress to make it look like a real piece of clothing rather than a costume;
- when the location is huge, you need big hair to be seen from afar;
- when most costumes will look heavy and too loaded, add textures keeping the focus on lightness.
So my goal was for something in a pale pastel color, with lots of texture, some shine, some focused contrat visible only when close, and a good silhouette.
The inspiration and the fabrics
The palette was inspired by this dress, from a cut scene in the Marie Antoinette movie. The combination between pale green and gunmetal/dark silver caught my mind to the point that one of my color obsessions was born. And I just had to do something with that color pairing.
So the fabric hunt began. And when people tell me they want a color in that exact shade, they usually do not understand that gathering the right supplies is the most time consuming part of the whole process. If you fixate on a color, you may need years to get the right fabric for the project! So when you commission a dress that needs to be ready in less than six months, you can’t be picky with the shade.
And true to be told, this dress is not in the shade I originally planned. I wanted a very light green taffeta. Where warp and weft were one white, the other a very diluted emerald green.
I started looking for this chimera of a fabric in June 2023. And the fabric gods said no. I had something like fifteen different samples.
In the end I settled for a silk dupion with very few slubs, in a pale seafoam color. Warp and weft in the same shade. It is a bit more gray than I wanted. And not iridescent.
How to adjust and get to the palette I wanted? Dyeing almost 20 meters of fabric was not possible. So I chose to overlay it with silk organza, dyed in the color I wanted.
I dyed it with a special technique to make it marbled. I then purchased metal spangles in dark silver, and plenty of very thin gunmetal lace trims. Modern and in lurex, but with the weathering they worked pretty well.
The silhouette
You know me, I have three main focus elements of a dress:
- the silhouette
- the texture
- the fabric
And if you’ve been following me for a while… you know I am always looking for the next update I can do to my shaping undergarments.
So I made two pairs of stays, and two panniers for this dress. The first pair of stays I made properly. I tried it out. I was pleased, but wanted more. So I made another pair. This second pair was built with 19th century corset techniques and was embellished to remind of this costume worn by Liv Tyler in Plunkett and Macleane.
Not historical, but better, in terms of the silhouette I envisioned. Not that the other was wrong, but I wanted a much longer front line. I wanted the torso to be an elongated V, and not to be cut at the waist.
For the panier, I tried at first with a grand one. Traditional and all of that. Tried, saw it, and it was a no. Proportions were off, and it would not have been what I wanted, even if I adjusted them. So I created another type of garment. A hybrid between a pannier and a crinolette, something that would give volume at the back as well, because I wanted my dress to be out of a fairytale illustration, while still giving the feel of historical accuracy. I wanted it to look accurate, but also to have a few elements that were off and made it even more striking. Show my knowledge and my skill, show what it means to make changes from accuracy by choice and not by lack of knowledge, if you know what I mean.
I also added a petticoat of course. I preferred a synthetic fabric to keep a high volume and low weight for the suitcase.
Textures
The next step was to make the aqua, the mint green and the gunmetal resonate with each other and vibrate. To combine them while keeping the final result light and eerie and almost monochrome. And to add a few elements of weird.
One of these is the lower row of pleated organza at the bottom of the petticoat. At the time it would not have been concealed by the top flounce. I chose to do it like this to create those texture details you can see only when getting closer, those things that make a gown appear detailed and rich, while keeping it light. My fear was to end up with one of those dresses where there’s too much going on.
For this reason, I opted for some brooches and elements of jewelry attached to the dress, but hidden at the same time. They’re small, here and there. Like the spangles or the bullion embellishment.
I then pulled threads to create fringes and blurred edges, highlighted certain other things using the lurex trims, pleated in several different ways all the fabrics to adjust and tune exactly to the desired level of depth.
Aging and weathering
I wanted a dress that looked like something used in a movie. A bit Miss Havisham, a bit of the old hag in the forest in Sleepy Hollow, a bit of Helena Bonham Carter as Frankenstein Bride. Those things where colors bleed and blur edges. I wanted to be an apparition, a ghost, a dream. Something dusty and shiny at the same time.
This process helped mix the colors of the two fabrics better, creating more three dimensionality and enhancing textures. It is not heavy weathering, the dress has not been sanded, or pinked, or grated. It is just a work of colors. And in real life it does not appear straight away, despite it being almost completely covered in paint. I used silvers, greens, whites and blacks. And in the end it had lived stories and adventures before being worn. It was the right garment for the character I wanted to embody.
To the side yopu can see the dress without weathering. In the photos at the beginning of the post you can see the result!
Want this for one of your dresses? I offer this service! It is ideal to get that extra push to a new garment, or new life to an old one. Do you want to be told too that your dress looks like it came out of a dream? Email to [email protected]
The hair
It needed to be light in color, and high. And I wanted to decorate it with tinkerbells because when I got the idea… it clicked. It felt so incredibly right that I just had to do it. It just makes sense, for a fairy.
I styled this wig two times. I will not share how I did the base, the thing that keeps it high. If you want to know, you will need to purchase one of my wigs, sorry.
What I can say is that I styled mine with shea butter and talcum powder, to keep it historical. At least the starting wig, not the extensions. And I had to keep it in my cabin suitcase, as it is very fragile. This is why I do not ship wigs styled historically, when it comes to this style. because packages and suitcases can be thrown and hit and treated in the less appropriate way, no matter how much care you take to pack.
So If you get one of my wigs, they will be styled with modern products, and powdered at the4 end.
I wanted the style and the shape to be clearly historical, because the correct shape and distribution of the rolls is very rarely seen nowadays. High hair was not just high and covered with random curls, it had specifics, and I wanted to show that I know exactly how to achieve it.
In the end, I am very happy with the result.
Footwear
I also did the shoes, meaning I painted a pair of Harr satin shoes to make them look old, added some taffeta, two pearl buckles and weathered it all. I am not entirely happy with the fit of the shoes, I can not ever get a pair that is true to size by them, and their European sizes are quite off from what I normally wear. These were half a number too small and quite uncomfortable. I asked them the size for my foot length (I do not have a wide foot, quite the opposite) and the suggested size is too small. Half a number more was still too small. In the end the right number for me is probably a 38. I usually wear 36,5 or 37.
At the same time, despite me having tried several other brands, these are just as uncomfortable as all others, but are cheaper, and artisan made in Europe.
In the end
I also painted a new paper leaf for an antique and damaged fan. I chose to use my husband’s profile to keep him with me during the event. And I added the title of our wedding song. All in 18th century style.
I will not share how much I spent on the supplies. But let’s say that, if someone wanted to purchase a dress like this, including the undergarments and the shoes and the wig, you’d find the set in the shop for more or less 7000 euros.
As for myself, crafting time is on the house, I paid less, of course. But I invested months on this dress, and it took me one year, since the moment I started designing it. Working on weekends, lunch breaks and nights, as working hours are for customers, of course.
I am very proud of this dress, and though there’s always a couple of things I will probably touch up in the future, I ended up with exactly what I imagined, and my recipe proved to be effective!
I have been asked how one can attend an event like FG wearing something as beautiful as this. And the good news is that you only need a fraction of the budget I mentioned above. Here you can see all the designs that I can make to your measurements. I will need one year at least, so make sure you will plan ahead. This is part of why these are much cheaper. I really want to work on these ideas with all the calm they need, find the right supplies, leave them on the mannequin as long as they need for the right idea to come.
I do offer payment plans.
You can start creating your Fetes Galantes dream right now. Email to [email protected]
