This video was produced by Lydia Robb as part of the CBC Creator Network. Learn more about the Creator Network here.
The Filles du Roy, or King’s Daughters, were the hundreds of young women sent by the King of France to a remote, fur-trading colony called Canada.
Between 1663 and 1673, nearly 1,000 of them arrived to help boost the population by encouraging male immigrants to settle, marry and raise families.
But, contrary to how they’ve long been depicted in the history of books and works of art, they did not arrive dressed in the trappings of wealth.
Using records from more than three centuries ago, genre art and the history of fashion, artist and amateur historian Lydia Robb paints a picture of how these poor, abandoned women might have really dressed.
The Creator Network, which works with emerging visual storytellers to bring their stories to CBC platforms, produced this piece. If you have an idea for the Creator Network, you can send it your pitch here.
