1780 Olympe de Gouges - 3 meters - Petticoat

1780s Petticoat Panel with Floral Border 

This design is based on an 18th-century block-printed textile fragment, originally intended for petticoat construction. The composition features an elegant floral trail combined with a defined border, printed lengthwise to follow the natural fall of the garment.

The structured layout allows the decorative border to form the hem, while the lighter floral field builds the body of the petticoat — closely reflecting historical construction methods.

Well suited for

Petticoats, underskirts, and 18th-century garments where a historically accurate border placement is essential. Especially suitable for full-length petticoats requiring a continuous hem decoration.

Design & Historical Context

The design is inspired by a late 18th-century Indian export cotton, produced for the European market using mordant painting and resist dyeing techniques. These textiles were highly valued for their colour complexity and structured layouts.

The original panel was designed so that the border runs along the selvage and becomes the visible hem when worn — a defining feature of petticoat fabrics of the period.

This reproduction follows the same principle: the fabric is printed lengthwise, and approximately three meters are required to achieve the correct historical drape and placement of the border.

Reference Person

Olympe de Gouges (born Marie Gouze, 1748) was a French political activist, writer, and early feminist voice. She is best known for the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen (1791), advocating equality, social reform, and civil rights.

Her name reflects a period of profound social and cultural transformation, closely aligned with the global textile trade that shaped European fashion.