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

Author:   Jennifer Jones
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN:  

9781859738351


Pages:   256
Publication Date:   01 July 2004
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Sexing La Mode: Gender, Fashion and Commercial Culture in Old Regime France


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Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jennifer Jones
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Berg Publishers
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 1.30cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.375kg
ISBN:  

9781859738351


ISBN 10:   1859738354
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   01 July 2004
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Prologue: The Morning Toilette Introduction Part I La Cour: Absolutism and Appearance in the Court of Louis XIV Chapter 1 Courting La Mode and Costuming the French Chapter 2 Fashion Culture in Print Chapter 3 Objects of Desire, Subjects of the King Part II La Ville: Clothing and Consumption in an Enlightened Society of Taste Chapter 4 A Natural Right to Dress Women Chapter 5 The Agreeable Art of Clothing Chapter 6 Coquettes and Grisettes Chapter 7 Selling La Mode Conclusion Epilogue: From the Absolutist Gaze to the Republican Look Select secondary bibliography Index

Reviews

'The recent release of Sofia Coppola's 'Marie Antoinette', with its lavish and detailed depiction of eighteenth-century court dress, suggests an enduring interest in the topic of fashion. As someone with a deep personal interest in 'La Mode', I was enormously pleased to be assigned the task of reviewing Jennifer M. Jones's book on fashion, gender and shopping under the Old Regime, especially since it is well-written and engaging.' Christine Adams, H-France Review


Author Information

Jennifer M. Jones is Graduate Director of Women's Studies and Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University

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