An Heirloom of Air & Width
The pannier is one of the most misunderstood elements of historical dress. Often reduced to caricature or exaggerated spectacle, it is frequently portrayed as an absurd contraption designed purely for excess. In reality, the pannier was a carefully engineered structural garment, developed to serve very specific aesthetic, social, and practical purposes within eighteenth-century fashion.
To understand what a pannier truly is, it must be viewed not as costume, but as architecture.
A pannier is a type of understructure worn at the hips to extend the skirt horizontally rather than vertically. Unlike crinolines or hoops that create volume all around the body, panniers concentrate fullness at the sides, leaving the front and back relatively flat. This produced the distinctive wide silhouette associated with eighteenth-century court dress, particularly in France.
Panniers were not a single rigid form. They varied widely in size and shape depending on occasion, rank, and setting. Court panniers could be dramatically wide, signaling status and formality, while informal or provincial versions were much more restrained. Some panniers were symmetrical, extending evenly on both sides, while others were modest, crescent-shaped, or even collapsible, designed to allow the wearer to sit or pass through doorways with relative ease.
Structurally, panniers were typically constructed from fabric channels reinforced with cane, whalebone, or reed. They were tied or fastened at the waist and worn over the foundational garments beneath, such as stays or a corseted bodice. Their purpose was not to shape the waist or torso, but to support the weight of heavy skirts and direct fabric outward in a controlled manner.
This distinction is essential. The pannier did not replace the corset, nor did it function as a shaping garment for the upper body. Instead, it worked in partnership with corsetry, redistributing the visual and physical weight of the gown. By shifting volume to the sides, panniers allowed skirts to be richly pleated and heavily embellished without collapsing inward or overwhelming the front of the body.
The silhouette created by panniers also had social and symbolic meaning. Width signaled presence. Space occupied at court was not accidental; it was political. The controlled expansion of the skirt reinforced hierarchy, etiquette, and visibility. Movement was slowed, posture refined, and gestures amplified. Clothing shaped behavior as much as it shaped appearance.
Despite modern assumptions, panniers were not inherently uncomfortable. When properly constructed and worn, they were lighter and more flexible than they appear in portraits. Many designs allowed the sides to compress or fold upward when the wearer sat, demonstrating that historical dressmakers prioritized functionality alongside form.
Panniers fell out of favor toward the end of the eighteenth century as fashion shifted toward verticality, softness, and neoclassical simplicity. However, their influence remains essential to understanding how garments were engineered to shape space, movement, and identity.
At Immortelle, the pannier is understood not as novelty, but as a reminder that historical dress was intentional, intelligent, and deeply considered. Like corsetry, it was never about restriction alone. It was about structure, balance, and the dialogue between body and garment.
To know what a pannier is, exactly, is to recognize that fashion has always been an act of design, not exaggeration.
