Sexing La Mode: Gender, Fashion and Commercial Culture in Old Regime France

by Jennifer M. Jones

The connection between fashion, femininity, frivolity and Frenchness has become a cliché. Yet, relegating fashion to the realm of frivolity and femininity is a distinctly modern belief that developed along with the urban culture of the Enlightenment. In eighteenth-century France, a commercial culture filled with shop girls, fashion magazines and window displays began to supplant a court-based fashion culture based on rank and distinction, stimulating debates over the proper relationship between women and commercial culture, public and private spheres, and morality and taste. Mary Wollstonecraft was one of those particularly critical of this 'vulgar' obsession with 'tawdry finery', declaring it to be 'merely the external mark of a depravity shared with slaves'.The story of how la mode was 'sexed' as feminine offers a compelling insight into the political, economic and cultural tensions that marked the birth of modern commercial culture. Jones examines men's and women's relation to fashion at this time, looking at both consumption and production to argue how clothing was becoming increasingly conceptualized as feminine/effeminate.A concise history of French fashion culture suitable for anyone interested in eighteenth-century culture, women and gender studies or fashion history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, 18th Century, Fashion

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2004

Reviews

[Elizabeth Desole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, this is probably a tough book to get through if you have no interest in the politics of fashion. But if you do, it offers a very concise argument for the reasons that women's fashions suddenly came to be considered such a feminine pursuit around the time of the French Revolution. It always baffled me that prior to the revolution, men dressed equally as lavishly as women. This disappeared and has yet to return. Why? The author really makes such a clear case for her argument that it all fell into place for me. It really is a classic case of men trying to keep women repressed. WHich seems so funny to me because I would say that now men are more repressed when it comes to fashion (though little else)One of the most eye-opening sections concerned the beginning of the debate about fine and applied arts. This exact argument is still being debated today and I thought her case about it's origins was so compelling. A very thoughtful and well researched book

[Praj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a fanatical reader of the exclusive fashion magazines, ‘Sexing la Mode’ was an utter merriment; like tracing the roots of Anna Wintour’s fraternity. Jennifer Jones proficiently traces the genesis of French couture and the prevailing fashion mode.

Dating back to the late 17th century, dressing norms were regulated solely by Louis XIV; restricted to only the elite royalty. Unlike today, men’s fashion ruled the roost while feminine fashion was mere “a tavern wench, the drunken invention of a tramp, a loose chicken skinned whore who hides her lowly birth by destroying the minds she captures."(M.de Fitelieu – a fashion critic;1642). The publishing of the very first fashion journal ‘La Mercure galant’ by Jean Donneau de Vise, a royal historian, exposed the commercial Parisian culture and brought awareness on the operational fashion system. The 18th century saw the commercialization of the fashion industry with several thousand female seamstresses and textile merchants demanding the legalization of the right to choose and work in the fashion arena. Fine arts and clothing fused to give rise to what we now call ‘haute couture’. Feminization of sewing was the mantra of the 19th century thus liberating women’s fashion without effeminizing France. Finally, fashion characterized one’s identity and not vice-versa.

The most interesting part of the narrative was the inception of the ‘One-sexed model of gender’. Even though Yves Saint Laurent did put the androgynous suit on the runway, its idea was conceptualized by Elisabeth Charlotte, sister-in-law of Louis XIV. Being married to the most notorious homosexual, Elisabeth came up with the concept of androgynous dressing for all sexes venting her frustration on her asexual life.

Indeed! A truly well-researched and intriguing historical read.

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a completely different view of history! It's definitely a girl approach--all about how fashion was involved. Interesting stuff... if you like history.