Rien que ton costume, on te met à la porte: The Importance of Being Fashionable in 19th century French Literature

Abstract

There is a keen awareness in 19th century French literature that fashion can open many doors. In a society freed from the sumptuary laws that, in principle, had governed public appearance since the 16th century, unconditional access to all modes of dress allowed 19th century authors and their fictive counterparts to aspire towards social spheres whose doors a few decades before might have been locked. Deslauriers' advice to Frederic Moreau at the beginning of L'Education Sentimentale based on the authority of Rastignac summarizes a new formula for social ambition: Puisque tu as un habit noir et des gants blancs, profites-en!' Under the ancien regime, strict edicts regarding acceptable dress had produced a reliable code for maintaining and reading the status of individuals and their place within the social hierarchy. As stated in the Edict of 1514, all common people and non-nobles were prohibited from assuming le titre de noblesse soit en leurs qualitis ou en habillement.2 Other edicts specified fabrics and adornments forbidden to the bourgeoisie: damask, velvet, taffeta, satin, flesh-coloured hose, valuable jewels, and so on. In short, a series of sumptuary laws helped to ensure social immobility especially in popular and rural milieus and assured the correspondence between costume and social position. In the words of Daniel Roche, la mode devientprincipe de lecture sociale et morale sans qu'ily ait rupture entre le vestimentaire et la condition entiere de l'homme.3 For citizens of the 19th century, the Revolutionary repeal of the sumptuary laws in 1794 thus represented the final liberation from a classbased dress code and consequently, a democratization of dress. At the same time, it also dismantled a relatively stable system of signification that had been constructed around difference and dress. By the second decade of the century, men's clothing in particular had