The sack-back gown (or sacque) doesn’t sound all that flattering, does it? Fortunately, it’s a lot prettier than it sounds!
The popular “robe à la française” was second only in formality to court dress. The main difference between this style of gowns and the anglaise and polonaise styles is the pleated panel at the back neck that hangs down to form a train. In A Gentleman’s Daughter, the gown that Cassandra lends to Patience and later wears herself features fabric inspired by this hand-painted silk taffeta gown and petticoat set at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Definitely click to see the fabric in detail!
Yeah, Lord David can wear that if he wants.
He looks good in whatever he wears… Name that game!
In A Gentleman’s Daughter, Cassandra would have likely worn her dress retroussé to keep the train from getting dirty in the streets. Loops and tapes built into the dress would allow easy conversion. (We see this in wedding dresses today, and we call it “bustling” the train.) That would look like these:
I believe these come from the Mint Museum
This gown is cut full enough to go over panniers, which make the hips look wider. By 1770, when the book is set, panniers had begun to decrease in size and fall out of favor altogether outside of court dress, but various forms of false rumps were still popular.
More about this dress from The Met Museum.
More about the sack-back gown from Wikipedia:
The robe à la française or sack-back gown had a tight bodice with a low-cut square neckline, usually with large ribbon bows down the front, wide panniers, and was lavishly trimmed with all manner of lace, ribbon, and flowers. With flowing pleats from the shoulders was originally an undress fashion. At its most informal, this gown was unfitted both front and back and called a sacque. With a more relaxed style came a shift away from heavy fabrics, such as satin and velvet, to Indian cotton, silks and damasks. Also, these gowns were often made in lighter pastel shades that gave off a warm, graceful and childlike appearance.[2] Later, for formal wear, the front was fitted to the body by means of a tightly-laced underbodice, while the back fell in loose box pleats called “Watteau pleats” from their appearance in the paintings of Antoine Watteau.
As we like to say, this looks totally fabergé!