“Liberty Equality Fashion”

Three women created a new world of clothing — “Revolutionary Dress”  — during the chaotic 1790s as the French Revolution dominated life in Paris. Their names were Juliette Récamier, Térézia Tallien, and Joséphine, and each one is famous in her own way. In Liberty Equality Fashion: The Women Who Styled the French Revolution (published in April, 2024) author Anne Higonnet not only describes the lives of these three women, she details the dramatic events of the Revolution as the three women experienced it — including Térézia’s imprisonment and narrow escape from the Guillotine. And she provides fascinating insights into the way that the revolution in dress was a part of a huge change in the rights of women, though many of the gains were lost again when the revolutionary era ended and the Empire replaced it.

A wonderful feature of this fascinating book is the wide variety of illustrations. Each of the three featured women was often painted by the most famous portrait artists of the era. Two of these paintings today are in the Louvre museum in Paris. The author also includes numerous plates from the fashion magazines of the era, showing the types of dress that these three women innovated. A selection of images also shows the sources of inspiration for the abrupt change in clothing — including the drapery worn by Roman and Greek statues, the clothing and textiles characteristic of India (made familiar by a diplomatic visit) and the characteristic dress of people in the French colonies in the Caribbean.

Here are a few images that show who these women were and why you probably know about them, though maybe not about their role in inventing modern dress.

Portrait of Madame Récamier (1800) by Jacques-Louis David. This painting hangs prominently in the Louvre.
It shows the daring freedom of the new style dress — not to mention bare feet!

Térézia in prison. Painted by Laneuville in 1796. At that time, women wore intensely fitted clothing
with highly restrictive corsets and voluminous skirts. This prison dress, meant to humiliate her,
was one of the inspirations for the new style that she popularized. The painting was staged at her request.

Another portrait of Térézia Tallien by Jean-Bernard Duvivier, 1806.

Joséphine “in a dress whose luxurious fabric pools like mist at her feet,” painted by Gérard in 1801.
As you may have guessed, this is Joséphine Bonaparte, wife of Napoleon.

Joséphine in a red Kashmiri shawl, painted by Prud’hon.
Shawls were also a  new fashion statement of the era. 

Napoleon crowns Joséphine. The revolution was over, and severely formal dress was back!

For her coronation robes, there was so much fabric in Joséphine’s train that she couldn’t walk with it on: two women had to carry it. By this time, Joséphine had given up the simple "Revolutionary" dress of earlier years. She wore sumptuous fabrics and amazing jewels. The painting may look familiar to you:

“David’s painting of the imperial coronation now hangs in a place of honor in the Louvre, not far, ironically, from his Portrait of Madame Récamier. Without being conscious of it, visitors see the zenith and the nadir of the Fashion Revolution together.” (p. 228)

  

Marie Antoinette: pre-Revolutionary fashion at its most extreme. (Wikipedia)

I enjoyed learning about the remarkable change from the restrictive and excessive fashions of the Royal Court, especially of Marie Antoinette, before the Revolution. I was fascinated by the change in dress that followed. In sum:

“The classicism already prevalent before 1789 cannot explain the speed with which fashion changed between 1794 and 1796. The sudden rupture of the Terror explains it, coupled with the immediate availability of ready-made models from France’s colonies. Térézia and Joséphine were jolted into what might be called either appropriation or appreciation. In a wild moment when nothing was normal, they were able to introduce a radically new style to Paris at lightning speed because its elements existed already elsewhere.” (p. 101)

In this post, I've repeated some of the generalizations about the rapid evolution of women's fashion during the French Revolution. The details are totally new to me: so much that I didn't notice that was in fact before my eyes. I very much recommend this book if this type of social history interests you. 

Blog post © 2024 mae sander