Sexing la mode: gender, fashion and commercial culture in old regime France

The connection between fashion, femininity, frivolity and Frenchness has become a clich . 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 cultur...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Jones, Jennifer Michelle (Author)
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: London Bloomsbury Fashion Central [2021]
Oxford Berg 2004
Subjects:
Online Access:DE-523
URL des Erstveröffentlichers
Summary:The connection between fashion, femininity, frivolity and Frenchness has become a clich . 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
Physical Description:1 Online-Ressource (xviii, 238 Seiten) Illustrationen
ISBN:9781847888860
DOI:10.2752/9781847888860

There is no print copy available.

Interlibrary loan Place Request Caution: Not in THWS collection! Get full text