18th Centruy French Revoultion Mens Fashions

Installation view,Reigning Men: Way in Menswear, 1715–2015, Apr 10–August 21, 2016, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

French Revolutionary Fashion

Long before ballot-year T-shirts, pins, and hats were worn to boldly announce one'south party allegiance, striped cockades, cotton wool textiles, and trousers were donned in the 1780s–90s to similarly express political attitudes. A rare collection of French Revolutionary fashions on display in Reigning Men: Mode in Menswear, 1715-2015 non only illustrates the wide range of styles popularized during this riotous time in French history, simply also how men displayed their civil sentiments through wearing apparel over 200 years agone.

When the French Revolution erupted in 1789 following decades of sociopolitical unrest, supporters of the cause donned politically charged blueish, red, and white striped ribbons known equally cockades, the primeval and well-nigh prolific symbol of the revolution. This combination of colors (the tricolore) was associated with the French revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity. Wearing the cockade grew to exist so strongly associated with democracy (as opposed to the monocratic system of governing with a rex and queen), that it was decreed that anyone not wearing i should be viewed as a counterrevolutionary.

Hat (Bicorne), France, c. 1790, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Michael and Ellen Michelson

An case of a bicorne (or two-cornered) chapeau with original cockade is dressed with an unmatched arrange of green silk and cotton, likely owned past a wealthy bourgeois who advisedly avoided ostentatious brandish synonymous with aristocracy. Because the French Revolutionary state of war was waged against the aristocratic elite, looking the part in overtly fine suits was oftentimes cause for sending the wearer to the guillotine. If doubts remain regarding this wearer's loyalties (for this ensemble was finely made), a revolutionary leaflet establish in the coat pocket when information technology was acquired by the museum speaks on his behalf.

Ensemble, France, c. 1790, Los Angeles Canton Museum of Fine art, purchased with funds provided by Michael and Ellen Michelson

Other new fashions besides emerged, such as an early double-breasted tail coat, or habit dégagé. An example in this style is strikingly similar to one worn by the militant leader of the deadly Reign of Terror, Maximilien Robespierre. Made from muted brown-striped cotton fiber (non silk, a fiber long associated with the wealthiest form) with a large neckband, broad lapels, high front waist, and long narrow tails at back, information technology is far from the ample, colorful silk coats of the ancien régime.

Ensemble, French republic, 1790–95, Los Angeles Canton Museum of Art, Costume Council Fund in honour of the council's 60th anniversary

One particularly special piece in Reigning Men that is ripe with French Revolutionary motifs is a belong that likely belonged to an aristocratic catechumen to the crusade, embroidered with motifs, mottos, and colors that declared the wearer'south attitudes. Information technology is such an impressive case of revolutionary dress that when it was starting time shown at LACMA in our 2010–11 exhibition, Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915 , way designer John Galliano dedicated his preface to the accompanying exhibition catalogue to highlighting its significance.

Vest, French republic, 1789–94, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Suzanne A. Saperstein and Michael and Ellen Michelson, with additional funding from the Costume Council, the Edgerton Foundation, Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer, Maureen H. Shapiro, Grace Tsao, and Lenore and Richard Wayne

More than militant revolutionaries completed the spectrum of anti-aristocratic radicals. They were called sans-culottes—literally, "without knee breeches"—and wore loose-fitting, coarse cotton trousers typical of the laboring class and a symbol against the impractical breeches commonly donned past the aristocracy. These tricolored-striped pantalons were worn with hip-length woolen jackets known every bit carmagnoles later Carmagnola, an Italian town where the garment was associated with the peasantry. The humble trouser and jacket worn past the sans-culottes, so drastically different from the long coats and knee-length breeches worn by the wealthy, would eventually be adopted into everyday menswear. Topping off this mannequin is a prop Phrygian cap, a soft brimless felt hat (also known as a liberty cap or bonnet rouge) that first appeared in French revolutionary imagery in 1789 as a symbol of democracy and freedom.

Carmagnole Jacket, France, c. 1790, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided past Suzanne A. Saperstein and Michael and Ellen Michelson, with additional funding from the Costume Council, the Edgerton Foundation, Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer, Maureen H. Shapiro, Grace Tsao, and Lenore and Richard Wayne; Sans-culotte Trousers, France, c. 1790, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Phillip Lim

By the end of the 1790s, gangs of immature men grew tired of the slovenly dress of the sans-culottes and introduced a new revolutionary fashion. The incroyables, or "incredible ones," were fashion extremists whose outrageous appearance, so different from their forefathers, illustrated the instability of the period. They roamed the streets of Paris wearing tight, extravagantly cut tail coats and cropped pants, often in conspicuous and clashing striped fabrics. This mannequin ensemble as well clutches a fashionable twisted wooden walking stick known as a Hercules club, which doubled equally a bludgeon to ward off political foes; in his hand he holds spying-spectacles called lorgnettes.

Incroyable Ensemble: Coat, Breeches, Lorgnette, and Walking Stick (Hercules Gild), France, 1790s, Los Angeles County Museum of Fine art, purchased with funds provided by Suzanne A. Saperstein and Michael and Ellen Michelson, with additional funding from the Costume Council, the Edgerton Foundation, Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer, Maureen H. Shapiro, Grace Tsao, and Lenore and Richard Wayne; Vests, France, 1790s, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Costume Council Fund

When the French Revolution finally drew to a close in 1799, menswear was changed forever. Wool and cotton wool were favored over silks, somber colors were preferred over previously pop pulverisation blues, pinks, and greens, and the tail coat and pantaloons would become the new uniform for the 19th century man.

See these French Revolutionary looks among others now on display in Reigning Men, open until Baronial 21, 2016.

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