Synopses & Reviews
From the color of a politicianand#8217;s tie, to exorbitantly costly haircuts, to the size of an American flag pin adorning a lapel, itand#8217;s no secret that style has political meaning. And there was no time in history when the politics of fashion was more fraught than during the French Revolution. In the 1790s almost any article of clothing could be scrutinized for evidence of oneand#8217;s political affiliation. A waistcoat with seventeen buttons, for example, could be a sign of counterrevolutionand#151;a reference to Louis XVIIand#151;and earn its wearer a trip to the guillotine.
Inand#160;Dandyism in the Age of Revolution, Elizabeth Amann shows that in France, England, and Spain, daring dress became a way of taking a stance toward the social and political upheaval of the period. France is the centerpiece of the story, not just because of the significance of the Revolution but also because of the speed with which its politics and fashions shifted. Dandyism in France represented an attempt to recover a political center after the extremism of the Terror, while in England and Spain it offered a way to reflect upon the turmoil across the Channel and Pyrenees. From the Hair Powder Act, which required users of the product to purchase a permit, to the political implications of the feather in Yankee Doodleand#8217;s hat, Amann aims to revise our understanding of the origins of modern dandyism and to recover the political context from which it emerged.
Review
"At the outset Daniel Roche makes it known that he seeks to retrieve the history of clothes from the highly specialist world of folk museums and historians of costume. This stimulating work is the proof of his success." Times Literary Supplement
Review
"...the book demonstrates brilliantly how to write social and cultural history." Choice
Review
and#8220;Dandyism in the Age of Revolutionand#160;sweeps aside received notions of the dandy as a disengaged fop to recover the figureand#8217;s political and politicized origins. Well researched and historiographically informed, this book is leavened with the sort of wordplay that dandies themselves would have appreciated.and#8221;
Review
"Elizabeth Amann's study brings to life the lost fashion world of young men in an age of Revolution. Arguing for a seismic shift in the meanings of men's dress in the late eighteenth century, Amann presents a new way of thinking about how the trauma of the French Revolution was managed through sartorial fashions."
Review
andldquo;Very detailed and revealing. . . . Amannandrsquo;s book luckily fills a gap and adds an important aspect to the evolution of dandyism, also providing valuable input for the French influence on the English dandy.andrdquo;
Synopsis
This book is a study of dress in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In it Roche discusses general approaches to the history of dress, locates the subject within current French historiography and uses a large sample of inventories to explore the differences between the various social classes in the amount they spent on clothes and the kind of clothes they wore.
Synopsis
Style has political meaningand#151;and, while you can get pegged as a Republican by wearing a tie, or a Democrat by sporting jeans and t-shirt that are too small, there was no time when carrying a political meaning on your sleeve was more fraught than during the French Revolution. The sans-culottes and the liberty caps are well-known markers of political affiliation, but in times of mass hysteria, any article of clothing could be scrutinized for evidence of oneand#8217;s political affiliation. To wear a waistcoat with seventeen buttons, for example, could signal counterrevolution, referencing Louis XVII. Scholars have considered piecemeal the significance of clothing during the Revolution, and they have also observed that the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries looked at menswear in two very different lights. The dominant paradigm of the eighteenth century was that clothing was formative; a gentleman wore gentlemanand#8217;s clothes in order to learn to be a gentleman. By the nineteenth; clothing was expressive: the clothes you wore showed who you were (this was part of a larger ethos of openness and readability; it parallels the popularity of physiognomy, for example). Elizabeth Amann takes the French Revolution to be the pivot point, and shows that in France, England, and Spain, fancy dress became a way of expressing opposition to social and political upheaval. France is the centerpiece, not just because of the significance of the Revolution but because of the speed with which both political and clothing fashions shifted (and the deadly stakes of both). Dandyism in France represented a rejection of revolutionary extremism, while in England and Spain outrageous style became associated with stances further to the left (illustrating that fashion does not travel by the same channels as politics).
About the Author
Elizabeth Amann
Table of Contents
List of plates; List of tables; Part I. History of Clothing: 1. Clothing or costume? 2. The Quicherat effect and after; 3. History, fashion and clothing systems from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries; Part II. The Economy of Wardrobes: 4. Towards an understanding of the Parisian clothing system; 5. The hierarchy of appearances in Paris from Louis XIV to Louis XVI; 6. The contents of wardrobes from the classical age to the Revolution; 7. The invention of linen; 8. The triumph of appearances: nobilities and clothes; 9. The discipline of appearances: the prestige of uniform; Part III. Producing, Selling and Stealing: the Distribution of Appearances: 10. From crafts to customers: the Parisian clothing economy; 11. From crafts to customers: tailors, dressmakers, linen-drapers and fashion merchants; 12. From theft to resale: another aspect of the clothes trade; 13. Caring for clothes: from propriety to cleanliness; Part IV. Truth and the Mask: 14. Clothes in the novel; 15. Rational and healthy clothes; 16. Fashions in reason and reasons for fashion: the birth of the fashion press in France; Conclusion: The culture of appearances: consumption and morality; Index.