Fashion's favourite paintings: Lady Worsley's red redinguote

Fashion has its own imaginary museum. A museum made of paintings that have shaped the representations and heritage of a profession. If we were to have fun populating the walls of this museum, we would certainly see well-known masterpieces, those paintings that, being part of our aesthetic world, continue to be reinvented by both pop culture and fashion. But amidst these "hits", others, less familiar, would equally deserve their important place. Paintings whose legacy through the centuries was carried by fashion more than any other medium. Among them: Lady Worsley by Joshua Reynolds, 1775-1776. A painting, twin of another, that of her husband, Lord Worsley. A rather typical commission from two English aristocrats wishing to display their status and wealth.

Yet, two and a half centuries later, the portrait has transformed. No, nothing has changed, and yet. Today, when looking at this painting, we know the sublime fate of the Scandalous one. A few years after this painting – painted the year of her marriage – Lady Worsley gave birth to an illegitimate child, the result of an affair with one of her lovers, and even fled with one of them. Her husband took revenge and sued her: but Lady Worsley did not give in, fought back, and succeeded in ending the proceedings. Her husband demanded 20,000£? He ended up with a poor shilling. Later, Seymour Fleming, known as Lady Worsley, reinvented herself as a demi-mondaine and went to France where she was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror. However, she managed to return to England where she died of illness. Yes, this English painting, portrait of a woman who became a legend, dressed in a red riding coat, whip in hand, determined look and posture, yet painted before her scandals, then became synonymous with a free, erotic, and combative femininity. How could fashion have overlooked it? A true stroke of luck.

Vivienne Westwood - Patriotic Inspiration

When Vivienne Westwood reinterpreted Lady Worsley's outfit in 1995, she drew inspiration from a national masterpiece. An obvious choice for someone who named one of her shows two years earlier "Anglomania". Here reimagined for the show "Vive la Cocotte", the silhouette is corseted and padded. The lady becomes a cocotte (not insignificant for an aristocrat caught in a sexual scandal), with an exaggerated eroticism. A touch of humor perhaps, which would not surprise us from Dame Vivienne Westwood. Lastly, it is important to note that the patriotic inspiration also recalls that the red riding coat worn by Lady Worsley was itself a gesture of support for her nation and its military politics. The famous "eternal return".

Thierry Mugler – The Dominant Lady

Shortly after Vivienne Westwood, Thierry Mugler also revisited Lady Worsley's wardrobe to reinterpret this riding coat in his own way. But Mugler goes further in eroticizing the outfit: the model transforms into a dominatrix, with a whip in hand that no longer has much to do with horseback riding. However, we still see the same shoulder pads – so 90s – and the same passion for the corset. But by choosing latex pants, a tie, and a bob haircut, Thierry Mugler blends this eroticism with a subtle mix of genres, a tribute to the very history of Lady Worsley, dressed in a masculine outfit.

John Galliano for Christian Dior – Equestrian Chic

Dior's SS10 Couture collection stands out from the rest of our examples, as our painting seems to have slipped into the entire lining of the show. The first look (below), clearly a tribute to Seymour Fleming, is followed by 6 other looks that take on the codes of the outfit: hat and whip. Less fetishistic than the Mugler version, more equestrian than dominant, Galliano still manages to make these figures just as erotic as they are chic.

Maria Grazia Chiuri for Christian Dior – A Lady at War

More than a decade after Galliano's version, Dior also reinterprets Lady Worsley's look: the red jacket remains in place, as does the white jabot shirt and black boots. Yet the eroticism is gone: the whip disappears, along with the rest of the aristocratic attire – gloves, hat, and whip. Lady Worsley in FW25 is more androgyne, perhaps even more military, but with a militarism that is less formal than realistic. Times have changed since the Galliano era, and the fetishistic femininity gives way to a front-line femininity, one that is determined to defend its interests without falling into erotic-violent imagery. The familiarity with Maria Grazia Chiuri's feminist legacy at Dior is clear, refocusing the look on its most combative aspect: Lady Worsley in men's clothes, Lady Worsley scandalous, ahead of her time, bold, and resolute.

How Pop Culture helped fuel the Worsley legend

For a painting to survive the centuries in the imagination, we can thank fashion here, but it would be unfair not to say a word about the other media that have helped this look circulate through the ages. In 1988, Mylène Farmer released one of her biggest hits, a hit backed by a video that has become the stuff of legend. The young Mylène (straight out of the Libertine video) stumbles upon an English regiment, has a torrid affair with their captain and dons the famous red coat. The androgynous, subversive Mylène Farmer reinvigorates the frock coat, which once again becomes synonymous, for a French public perhaps less familiar with Lady Worsley's painting, with erotic, transgressive femininity. 

In 2001, France endorsed the red coat as a symbol of martial femininity when the late Emilie Dequenne donned an outfit in Le pacte des loups - perhaps the closest to the original painting - for her role as a pugnacious young girl ready to take up arms. The film, a huge success in France and around the world, went on to become a cult classic, and was even restored in 2022. The red frock coat was back in the cinematic imagination.

An object of fascination for fashion and pop culture, Lady Worsley's painting has served as a vector for all those who wish to explore notions of femininity, eroticism and subversion, combined with a form of determination and even combat. A godsend for fashion, but one that in turn allowed the painting - and thus Lady Worsley's destiny - to live on through the ages.