French fashion

Fashion has been an important industry and cultural export of France since the seventeenth century, and modern "haute couture" originated in Paris in the 1860s. Today, Paris, along with London, Milan, and New York City, is considered one of the world's fashion capitals, and the city is home or headquarters to many of the premier fashion houses, including Balenciaga, Céline, Chanel, Chloe, Dior, Givenchy, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Hermès, Lanvin, Rochas, Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent.

History

Seventeenth - Eighteenth century

The association of France with fashion and style (French: la mode) dates largely to the reign of Louis XIV when the luxury goods industries in France came increasingly under royal control and the French royal court became, arguably, the arbiter of taste and style in Europe. The rise in prominence of French fashion was linked to the creation of the fashion press in the early 1670s (due in large part to Jean Donneau de Visé) which transformed the fashion industry by marketing designs to a broad public outside the French court and by popularizing notions such as the fashion "season" and changing styles. Louis XIV notably introduced one of the most noticeable feature of the men's costume of the time : the immense wigs of curled hair. It is said these originated from the fact that Louis XIV started to wear wigs as he was getting bald, and to imitate this his courtiers put on false hair. The wearing of wigs lasted for over a century; they went through many changes, but they were never quite so exaggerated as during this period.

The extravagant, luxurious and evanescent styles of the French Royal court led the courtiers to run up enormous debts to keep up the pace, at the peasant’s expense. Such fashion sprees notably ruined Marie Antoinette’s reputation, and were one of the many factors paving the way for the French Revolution.

The Sans-culottes (lit. “Without knee-breeches”) rejected the powdered wigs and the knee-breeches assimilated to the nobility and favored informal styles (full-length trousers, and natural hairs...), which finally triumphed over the brocades, lace, periwig, and powder of the earlier eighteenth century.

Belle Époque

France renewed its dominance of the high fashion (French: couture or haute couture) industry in the years 1860-1960 through the establishing of the great couturier houses, the fashion press (Vogue was founded in 1892) and fashion shows. The first modern Parisian couturier house is generally considered the work of the Englishman Charles Frederick Worth who dominated the industry from 1858-1895. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the industry expanded through such Parisian fashion houses as the house of Jacques Doucet (founded in 1871), Rouff (founded 1884), Jeanne Paquin (founded in 1891; she trained at Rouff and was the first woman to open her own fashion house), the Callot Soeurs (founded 1895 and operated by four sisters), Paul Poiret (founded in 1903), Madeleine Chéruit (founded 1906), Madeleine Vionnet (founded in 1912), Chanel (founded by Coco Chanel, it first came to prominence in 1925), Elsa Schiaparelli (founded in 1927) and Balenciaga (founded by the Spaniard Cristobal Balenciaga in 1937).

World War II

Many fashion houses closed during occupation of Paris during World War II, including the Maison Vionnet and the Maison Chanel. In contrast to the stylish, liberated Parisienne, the Vichy regime promoted the model of the wife and mother, the robust, athletic young woman, a figure who was much more in line with the new political criteria. Germany, meanwhile, was taking possession of over half of what France produced, including high fashion, and was also considering relocating French haute couture to the cities of Berlin and Vienna, neither of which had any significant tradition of fashion. The archives of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture were seized, most consequentially the client list. Jews were excluded from the fashion industry.

Due to the difficult times, the number of models in shows was limited to seventy-five, evening wear was shortened and day wear was much lighter, made using substitute materials whenever possible. From 1940 onward, no more than thirteen feet (four meters) of cloth was permitted to be used for a coat and a little over three feet (one meter) was all that allowed for a blouse. No belt could be over one and a half inches (four centimeters) wide. Among young men in the War Years the zazou suit became popular.

In spite of the fact that so many fashion houses closed down or moved away during the war, several new houses remained open, including Jacques Fath, Maggy Rouff, Marcel Rochas, Jeanne Lafaurie, Nina Ricci, and Madeleine Vramant. During the Occupation, the only true way for a woman to flaunt her extravagance and add to colour to a drab outfit was to wear a hat. In this period, hats were often made of scraps of material that would have otherwise been thrown away, sometimes incorporating butter muslin, bits of paper, and wood shavings. Among the most innovative milliners of the time were Pauline Adam, Simone Naudet, Rose Valois, and Le Monnier

Evening dress, House of Dior, 1954. Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Post-War

Post-war fashion returned to prominence through Christian Dior's famous "New Look" in 1947: the collection contained dresses with tiny waists, majestic busts, and full skirts swelling out beneath small bodices, in a manner very similar to the style of the Belle Époque. The extravagant use of fabric and the feminine elegance of the designs appealed greatly to a post-war clientele. Other important houses of the period included Pierre Balmain and Hubert de Givenchy (opened in 1952). The fashion magazine Elle was founded in 1945. In 1952, Coco Chanel herself returned to Paris.

In the 1960s, "high fashion" came under criticism from France's youth culture (including the yé-yés) who were turning increasingly to London and to casual styles. In 1966, the designer Yves Saint Laurent broke with established high fashion norms by launching a prêt-à-porter ("ready to wear") line and expanding French fashion into mass manufacturing and marketing (member houses of the Chambre Syndicale were forbidden to use even sewing machines). Further innovations were carried out by Paco Rabanne and Pierre Cardin. In post-1968 France, youth culture would continue to gravitate away from the "sociopolitically suspect" luxury clothing industry, preferring instead a more "hippy" look (termed baba cool in French). With a greater focus on marketing and manufacturing, new trends were established by Sonia Rykiel, Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Christian Lacroix in the 1970s and 80s. The 1990s saw a conglomeration of many French couture houses under luxury giants and multinationals such as LVMH.

Since the 1960s, France's fashion industry has come under increasing competition from London, New York, Milan and Tokyo. Nevertheless, many foreign designers still seek to make their careers in France: Karl Lagerfeld (German) at Chanel, John Galliano (British) at Dior, Paulo Melim Andersson (Swedish) at Chloe, Stefano Pilati (Italian) at Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Jacobs (American) at Louis Vuitton, Kenzo Takada (Japanese) and Alexander McQueen (English) at Givenchy (until 2001).

Legal status

The expression Haute couture is, in France, a legally protected name, guaranteeing certain quality standards.

French couture is regulated by an industry governing body, the Fédération française de la couture, du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créateurs de mode created in 1973, which itself consists of the Chambre Syndicale de la mode masculine (men's fashion), the Chambre syndicale du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créateurs de mode (ready-to-wear) and the Chambre syndicale de la haute couture (high fashion), the latter having been created in 1868. The Fédération française also has a fashion school, the École de la chambre syndicale de la couture parisienne (created in 1928). Paris is one of the world's fashion capitals.

Fashion weeks

Main article: Paris Fashion Week

The Paris Fashion Week takes place twice a year after the Milan Fashion Week. It is the last and generally the most anticipated city of fashion month. Dates are determined by the French Fashion Federation. Currently, the Fashion Week is held in the Carrousel du Louvre.

Paris

Since the seventeenth century, the headquarters for fashion houses have been traditionally situated in the quarter around the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Since the 1980s, the Avenue Montaigne has, to some extent, overtaken the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in high fashion as well as accessories. Other areas, such as Le Marais, a traditional Jewish quarter, have also included the clothing industry.

References

• Dauncey, Hugh, ed., French Popular Culture: An Introduction, New York: Oxford University Press (Arnold Publishers), 2003.
• DeJean, Joan, The Essence of Style: How The French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafés, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour, New York: Free Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-7432-6413-6
• Kelly, Michael, French Culture and Society: The Essentials, New York: Oxford University Press (Arnold Publishers), 2001, (a reference guide)
• Nadeau, Jean-Benoît and Julie Barlow, Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong: Why We Love France But Not The French, Sourcebooks Trade, 2003, ISBN 1-4022-0045-5

Further reading

• Bourhis, Katell le: The Age of Napoleon: Costume from Revolution to Empire, 1789-1815, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. ISBN 0870995707
• Martin, Richard & Koda, Harold (1996). Christian Dior. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9780870998225.

External links

• La Fédération française de la couture, du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créateurs de mode - main page
  • La Fédération française de la couture - member fashion houses
• "Interactive timeline of couture houses and couturier biographies". Victoria and Albert Museum. http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1486_couture/explore.php.
• News about French fashion industry FashionUnited
• The Fashion Board Fashion Accreditation