I stumbled on this link on a familiar dress ( for me at least) from the MET. The possibility who owned it is interesting. The woman who owned this dress may have been a dress of a lady- of-waiting when Mari Antoinette was still the Archduchess Maria Antonia.
So this started me thinking... perhaps this is the kind of dress Antoinette wore when she was still an Archduchess?

It's just a thought.

http://blog.metmuseum.org/blogmode/2008 ... en-regime/

It seems to me that the gowns with the large panniers were designed to lessen the inconvenience of the full hoop skirts that took up so much room and limited the number of people that could gather for whatever reason. Plus, full hoops required whalebone for construction, a rare commodity to be sure.

George Frideric Handel would publish his announcements for his oratorios and operas: "Ladies - No Hoops"

Thank you for the posting of the link to the lovely dress; I had no idea that navigation in some of these styles was such a test for one's physical body. I think of Madame, sister-in-law of Louis XIV: she was round and probably didn't handle gracefully the styles of that time. Of course she wasn't a beauty any way and I cannot walk in spiked heels.