Louis+XIV's+Use+of+Fashion+to+Control+and+Express+Power


 * INTRODUCTION**

When Louis XIII died and his wife, with the support of Prime Minister Cardinal Mazarin, became regent, the Fronde, an attack on the monarchy, followed soon after. The people that instigated the Fronde were mostly nobles and military generals who were hungry for power and influence. They planned to gain this by demolishing the king’s power and seizing it for themselves, but they were defeated a couple years before Louis XIV officially became king. However, the Fronde was not a singular attack, as the French Wars of Religion had only just ended in 1598. The French wars had lasted for thirty years and been predominantly a civil war. They had shaken the king’s appearance of strength, especially to the rest of Europe. The instability that Louis XIV found the monarchy in led him to turn to fashion and its historic significance to control the nobility and express his power.


 * CYCLE OF DEBT**

Louis XIV increased and emphasized fashions importance by making it a part of social edict and increasing rather than belittling its cost. It has been debated whether or not Louis stressed fashion to the extend he did in order to throw the nobles into debt, to distract them from scheming or for an entirely different motive. However, the general consensus places his motivations at least partly on an attempt to send as many nobles as possible into debt. It has also been argued that Louis had to pay for any debt his nobles acquired and therefore would not want to encourage it.[1] Despite these disagreements, it is evident that Louis was attempting to control the nobility and fashion had a hand in it.

Unlike many courts in Europe in past and present, Louis required a different code of dress for each formal event. In most countries, one code was set for all occasion in order to keep clothing inexpensive, whereas Louis’s system sent many into bankruptcy.[2] One such festivity, which was extremely expensive, was the carrousel, where various groups of nobles came clad in the most splendid costumes they could design.[3] If bankruptcy was Louis’s intent, he used fashion in events like these to cause it. Debt led to constraints and Louis named the terms of these limitations, thereby making himself the most important and most powerful.

Louis would stage elaborate ball after exquisite party after expensive festival and require luxurious attire at each one. The nobility wanted to remain within the higher circles, which were quickly congealing at the court of Versailles, because it was “believed that mere physical proximity to the monarch…would elevate them to a higher social level” and the king spent almost all of his time at court.[4] It was thus necessary to attend all the fashionable balls and festivities and spend outrageous amounts of money on new clothing. Eventually it was almost certain the courtier would fall into debt and should they want to remain within the court they would be required to ask for a loan from the king. The king would only grant them said loan or even hear their request for the loan if they had been spending the proper amount of time at court.[5] This endless cycle kept the nobles trapped in Versailles and focused on the wearing the proper and most fashionable clothing, which led them to be both too poor and too preoccupied to revolt against the monarch.[6]


 * COMPETITION**

In order to generate competition among his nobles, Louis made his dressing and undressing in the morning and evening the most important times of the day. Only the most powerful courtiers were present. It was at this time they could speak with him. This made the ability to attend his dressing and undressing extremely desirable because finding a time to speak with the king could be difficult and he would only grant an audience if he thought the noble was worthy enough to speak to.[7] Those that were present at his dressing and undressing had already been established as worthy and they had a substantial amount of time every day to make a request. Nobles were always competing to become one of these select few.

Louis also designed a blue silk jacket, the justaucorps á brevet, embroidered in silver and gold, which only his most favored courtiers were permitted to wear, after they had been granted permission by the king.[8] Only fifty nobles at a time were approved to wear this highly fashionable piece of clothing, which meant that even among those that should by birth be considered one of the king’s favorite, had to fight for it. As an additional benefit, those with permission to wear the jacket were allowed to “follow the King on his hunt whenever the wearer wanted.”[9] This, again, required the aristocrats to spend much of their time at court as well as appearing socially elevated, which meant they had to wear fashionable clothing.

Louis also extended fashion down to the middle class to increase his power. Any person who was reasonably well dressed was allowed to enter the Versailles gardens.[10] Instead of isolating anyone who was anything less than a noble, Louis extended the exciting prospect of not only being in the king’s gardens but perhaps even seeing the king to what middle class there was. This stressed Louis’s power because it made it clear that the middle class was willing to save their money just to be in his gardens and, thus, obviously admired him. While in the gardens, they might also see such events like the carrousel, which would dazzle and impress them. The image this gave of the king was that he was very powerful and very rich.


 * LAWS**

Louis continued to accentuate fashion’s importance through more legal means. He created the grand maitre de la garderobe du roi, “the only new office which he created in his own household.” [11] The office was dedicated to the king’s clothing alone, which were stored across three rooms.[12][13] In 1668 Louis even passed an edict that required his courtiers to remain fashionable.[14] Louis XIV made fashion important to such an extent that the nobles and even the middle class would be more preoccupied with it than gaining more power or questioning his rule, thus waylaying another attack similar to the Fronde.


 * FAIRY TALES AS PROPAGANDA**

Louis XIV similarly used propaganda to encourage the nobilities’ dependence on and obsession with fashion. At the time the belief was already in place that one’s outside appearance reflected not only one’s personality but who one was in terms of social status. The more expensive and fashionable, the more important one was.[15] As can be seen in fairy tales of the time, such as Cinderella and Puss in Boots, wearing a gorgeous gown or fashionable boots meant the wearer was important and heroic. [16] Two French Cinderella stories were published in 1697, one written by Charles Perrault and the other by Marie-Catherine de Barneville, Comtesse d’Aulnoy.[17] D’Aulnoy’s story had an especially strong emphasis on the importance of fashion; the dress and shoes were the main characters and Cinderella was only there to carry the clothing. In the story, when Cinderella comes to the ball, she never even meets the prince, but simply shows off her glamorous gown and “red velvet mules completely encrusted with pearls;” a pair of glamorous shoes she would never intended to lose.[18] On the other hand, in Perrault’s story, Cinderella slips out of her shoe in an attempt to lure the prince after her as she knows its beauty will attract him.[19] In D’Aulnoy’s story, she extends the obsession of fashion to men as well, as Prince Charming finds Cinderella’s lost slipper and becomes entranced by its petit size and exquisite craft.[20] He becomes devoted to and enamored by the shoe, not eating or leaving his room for weeks. The doctors his desperate parents send for declare him in love – Prince Charming himself states that it is the shoe with which he is in love.[21] D’Aulnoy’s story centerpieces clothing and the Parisian fashion industry, making it magical and desirable by its fairytale setting.

Charles Perrault wrote the story of Puss in Boots around the same time. In the story, the youngest son of a miller is presented, as his inheritance, a cat. Puss is not particularly extraordinary until, upon his request, the son presents Puss with a pair of boots and a pouch.[22] Once Puss has these, he is able to perform heroic deeds and impress the king with many gifts. When the king is riding in the woods, the cat tricks him into believing the miller’s son is a Marquis, whereupon the king gives the miller’s son a set of expensive clothes because Puss has told him that the Marquis’s were stolen. Eventually the miller’s son marries the king’s daughter and the cat becomes a grand seigneur.[23] Just as Cinderella transforms into a high-born lady when she wears a gorgeous gown, Puss is transformed into a witty and courageous cat that is able to procure many great privileges for his master when given a pair of boots. The son’s relationship with the king is even firmly established by the king presenting him with the clothes of a courtier to wear. These clothes seem to transform the peasant to a courtier just as Cinderella’s did. Perrault’s story emphasizes “the virtues of dress, countenance, and youth to win the heart of a princess.” [24] Perrault also mentions, briefly, that the truly noble need not strain themselves. When Puss jumps up onto the ogre’s roof in fear, he finds it difficult because his boots are not suited for walking on tiles. Therefore the emphasis is especially strong on how, while wearing such fancy boots, he cannot do hard work because of course Puss’s boots would never be designed for labor because the nobility has no need to work.

Perrault wrote many other stories, including Sleeping Beauty, Little Tom Thumb, and Ricky of the Tuft. All of his stories include similar messages. He calls on women to be beautiful, fashionable, and to properly maintain her attire. Any woman of importance or good qualities in Perrault’s story posses beauty or, in the case of Cinderella, are able to swath themselves in beauty.[25] Men in his stories are ambitious and clever, always climbing the social ladder.[26] Puss especially embodies the perfect bourgeois, “who serves his master with complete devotion and diligence” and is ultimately rewarded.[27] Perrault encourages men to be loyal to the king and serve him well in order to gain his favor, just as Louis did through competition. Through his stories, Perrault hoped to portray, either by example or counter-example, the correct mannerisms and personalities of courtiers as well as what material items they required to achieve this.[28] D’Aulnoy’s Finette Cendron and Perrault’s Le Maistre Chat, ou Le Chat Botté loudly proclaim fashion as the most influential and important industry and almost all one needs to become rich and powerful.


 * PIZZAZZ AND APPERANCES TO THE REST OF THE WORLD**

Louis chose boisterous fashion to express his power both to his nobles and the rest of the world because it made him appear strong. The proper dress alone was supposed “to encourage loyalty, satisfy vanity, [and] impress the outside world.”[29] With this notion already in place, Louis made sure both himself and his courtiers wore expensive cloths. His choice of such extravagance and bright colors has three particularly strong reasons. Firstly, Louis chose to dress in bright colors instead of sober blacks because although black cloth was extremely expensive and represented sobriety and piety, Louis was not particularly restrained nor conservative in terms of religion until later in his reign.[30] He held large parties, stayed up late gambling, and ate extravagant amounts of food. It was for this reason that he chose color to express his powerful reign rather than black. For example, he used the design of red heels to both draw attention to the feet and as a symbol for “the elevation of his court above the rest of humanity.”[31] The red heel eventually became one of the most popular and widespread trends in Europe. Even William III of Orange, who had become one of Louis’s most devoted enemies, after Louis attacked the Dutch Republic, wore red heels.[32]

The art style of the time was also baroque, an extravagant and colorful style that Louis used in his architecture – most notably Versailles – clothing, and decoration. Baroque was fashionable at the time and therefore it was fashionable to base all arts on it. It was also especially appropriate for the king because of its extravagance and expense. Finally, these costumes gave the appearance of power and although Louis was not lacking power by the end of his reign, and neither was France, at the beginning his throne was not stable. Black cloth was both for the religious and the confident.[33] Although Louis might have been confident himself, he needed to prove this confidence to his nobles, which led to his use of bright colors instead of sober ones.

It was not long before the fashions of France began to appear all across Europe. Although it was not fashion that made France powerful, fashion did make France appear powerful, especially in terms of its court, which expressed its power to the outside world by appearing magnificent.[34] The court in France was the grandest in Europe, “Paris[’s] tailors were considered the best [and]…dolls wearing the latest style extended French fashions” even to hostile and distance capitals such as London and Russia.[35] Fashion also provided a sense of national identity and patriotism to the wearer.[36] Accepting another country’s fashion was, to an extent, accepting that national identity and wearing French clothes while in England or Germany or somewhere else outside of France showed respect to France. Fashionable and expensive clothing was already a sign of power and the spread of French fashion across Europe and the pride nobles took in wearing it both in and out of France, was Louis’s way of proving France and ts monarch were powerful.


 * EMPLOYMENT**



Fashion was also important for a more practical reason; the employment of the lower class. Louis XIV banned foreign cloth, lace, and trimmings, which meant fabric had to be made in France by the French. [37] This led to an increase in velvet and silk in France, while in other countries like England, wool became more popular. [38] Of the possible accessories and cloth, lace was among the most difficult and time consuming to make; a narrow strip of lace alone could take months.[39] Making lace was not usually considered an enjoyable task, but it was better than having no employment at all and since lace was such a commodity, a good deal of people had to be making it. The rest of the outfit was just as expensive and time consuming. A court gown alone was put together by three people, the tailor, couturier and marchand de modes. [40] It took several days per gown. French fashion employed roughly “a third of wage-earners in Paris…It employed 969,863 individuals compared to only 38,000 in the iron and steel industry.”[41] Periods of court morning were said to be so drawn out and to encompass so many people that those making clothing, which were a substantial amount of the population, struggled to survive because no new, expensive clothing was bought for the duration.[42] Clothing also, to an extent, aided in the circulation of wealth.[43] Although it was certainly not his main motivation or even necessarily something Louis often kept in mind, the extravagant fashion did keep many people employed and the greater employment rate empowered France.


 * HISTORIC IMPORTANCE OF FASHION**

Louis XIV chose fashion because it had historically been important, often because of its expense and impracticality. Although not all clothing was uncomfortable, as some of it was designed specifically to be comfortable, much of it was painful or difficult to wear. Shoes were narrow, sitting down in some gowns could be a major feat, most hats were either ridiculously wide or tall, and the lace, ribbons, feathers, and mountains of cloth that accompanied every fashionable outfit could make avoiding collisions and, especially, dining a near impossibility.[44] For certain occasions noble women were required to wear the grand habit de cour, a type of dress with a long train.[45] The longer the train, the more elite the wearer and the more difficult the train was to manage.[46] Despite the fact that the dress was impractical in the case of both the train and the sleeves, which required the wearer to have bare shoulders in all sorts of weather, it was the height of fashion.[47] Similarly, the higher ranking ladies wore the tightest and most restrictive of corset.[48] The extremes of these outfits meant that to appear elegant, nobles had to put hours and hours of time into practicing such simple things as walking and sitting. Were a lady to drop her fan or handkerchief, though it would not have been appropriate for her to pick it up anyway, she would actually be unable to pick it up and would have “relied on a servant or gentleman to pick it up.”[49] This emphasized both her delicacy, which meant she never had to work for herself, and that she had enough money and power for someone to do her work for her.


 * EXPENSE**

On the other hand, when pain was not required to maintain a fashionable image, nobles could afford to have more comfortable clothing. The lacing of a corset would be placed in front of the busk to keep it from rubbing against the skin.[50] Clothing could also be made for ease. Aiguillettes were thin strips of iron placed inside the ends of ribbons to both keep them from fraying and to make it easier to thread them through loops. [51] Corsets that were well designed and properly laced both improved a lady’s posture and showed her figure off, without the lady putting in much effort.[52] The more fashionable a costume, the more it cost, which played into Louis’s cycle of debt. The nobles that wanted to be in his inner circle need the money to be in his inner circle and many would have to ask for Louis’s aid to retain their money. The expense of these costumes came, mostly, from the difficulty in making the material and outfits, but every added comfort added cost.

Materials were also difficult to make. Lace took long periods of time and only nobles could afford to buy it in the quantities they did.[53] But, lace was not made so expensive that a peasant who was willing to scrimp and save could not buy a small strip eventually.[54] In addition, any piece of cloth that had a repeating pattern had to, first, be correctly patterned and then the cloth had to be lined up correctly with the rest of the pieces of cloth in order to make the final outfit appear seamless.[55] The best dresses would be custom fitted, especially at the waist and shoulders and with consideration of the height of a wearer.[56] The more care that was put into the outfit, the more it cost, which meant that the more elite nobles, even if they did not always have the money, strived for the more expensive gowns and jackets and vests. These outfits also required yards and yards of cloth. Despite some skintight garments such as bodices and breeches, most were overflowing with fabric. Skirts, which would exaggerate the frame until the 19th century, always required a large amount of fabric. To retain their huge size it was necessary to wear several petticoats and layers of underwear underneath them. Sleeves were also usually puffed and then, often, “paned out and tied with ribbons into a series of puffs as virago sleeves.” [57] Even breeches, which were known for being skintight, could become mountains of cloth. As the amount of cloth used in an outfit increased, the price increased with it.

When possible, nobles extended fashionable, if not as fashionable, clothing to their servants to prove they had the money and time to do so. This was most often done during times of court mourning. Originally, only the elite were allowed to take part in the mourning, but it was eventually extended to “all ‘persons of quality’…[and later] to the general public.” [58] The nobles were certain to supply their servants with fairly expensive garments during this time. This brought even the peasants directly under Louis’s influence as well as increasing the money nobles were required to spend.

Clothing’s expense and difficulty to clean are also seen in the protection of the garments. While ladies applied makeup to their face or powder to their hair, they wore a dressing jacket, which protected their gowns from any powder that might fall onto them.[59] Under their luxurious outer garments, courtiers wore “an unending array of chemises, petticoats, fichus and laves” in order to keep the outer garments clean from any sweats or oils on their body.[60] The concept, in general, was that nobles never partook in activities that would require them to clean their clothing. They were not farming or laboring in any way beyond walking in their gardens or taking part in a hunt. This was not always the case, but appearing to never need to work for a living was important. The red heels were a demonstration of this because if one was going to wear something so eye catching as red heels, the heels would certainly never be dirty. [61] Or, at the very least, there was someone who could clean the heels in the case of them becoming dirty. Such clothing invoked the idea that the wearer had a host of servants to dress them, button buttons, tie ribbons, lace seams and keep everything in pristine order. The wearer also certainly had a long list of people to create and perfect their clothing in the first place, including a “wigmaker, barber, tailor, jeweler, and perfumer.”[62] Again, this might not necessarily be true, but the more fashionable one appeared and the more grand ones clothes were, the more it appeared that one owned these things and had the time to tend to them. Louis knew the expense of clothing and need to appear idle and power was a strongly held tradition. He strengthened these beliefs so that courtiers would be more focused on fashion than they had ever been in the past, constantly buying new clothing, spending money, and keeping their attire in order. Louis used the image this created on himself and made sure his nobles did the same.


 * CONCLUSION**

It was believed across France and the world that expensive, impractical, spotless, and often uncomfortable clothing was the absolute symbol of status. It had been believed for centuries and would continue to be so after Louis XIV died. Louis, who took an unstable throne in a divided country, used many techniques to unite France and make it stronger. He chose fashion to control nobles by using it to consume their time and money and give them something to flaunt and be proud of. He himself was a great admirer of fashion and how it could make the body appear elegant and powerful, both symbolically and physically. Through his use propaganda and competition, Louis proved France was a strong country with a strong monarchy both to his courtiers and the rest of the European monarchies.

1 Mansel, Philip. //Dressed to Rule: Royal and Court Costume from Louis XIV to Elizabeth II//. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005. Print. p.3 2 Annas, Alicia M., Anne Ratzki-Kraatz, and Edward Maeder, comps. //An Elegant Art//. Ed. Edward Maeder. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1983. Print. p.19, from the essay by Edward Maeder 3 Bernier, Oliver. //Louis XIV: A Royal Life//. New York: Doubleday, 1987. Print. p.102 4 Annas p.15, from the essay by Edward Maeder 5 Bernier p.103 6 Ibid p.102 7 Bell, Howell. “Daily Life in the Court of Louis XIV.” N.p.: Charles E. Merrill Publish Co., 1985. Print. 8 Bernier p.101 9 Mansel p.56 10 Bernier p.102 11 Mansel p.4 12 Ibid p.4 13 Ibid p.5 14 "Louis XIV and the Court at Versailles." //Collections Online//. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2010. . 15 Mansel p.xv, quoted as said by Queen Victoria of England 16 Ibid p.xiii 17 DeJean, Joan. //The Essence of Style//. New York: Free Press, 2005. Print. p.100-1 18 Ibid p.101, quoted as from the original Cinderella text by Comtesse d’Aulnoy. 19 Ibid p.101 20 Ibid p.102 21 Ibid p.102 22 Zipes, Jack. "Setting Standards for Civilization through Fairy Tales: Charles Perrault and his Associates." //Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion//. 1983. New York: Routledge, 1991. 13-44. Print. p.25 23 Ibid p.26 24 Ibid p.26 25 Ibid p.25 26 Ibid p.26 27 Ibid p.25 28 Ibid p.26 29 Mansel p.xiv 30 Ibid p.xvii 31 Ibid p.15 32 Ibid p.15 33 Ibid p.xvi 34 Delpierre, Madeleine. //Dress in France in the Eighteenth Century//. Trans. Caroline Beamish. 1996. London: Yale University Press, 1997. Print. p.1 35 Mansel p.8 36 Ibid p.37 37 Ibid p.8 38 Kipar, Nicole. //Kipar//. N.p., 2010. Web. 17 Dec. 2010. . "Male Accessories." . 39 Annas p. 107, from the essay by Anne Ratzki-Kraatz 40 Mansel p.3 41 Ibid p.8 42 Ibid p.16 43 Ibid p.2 44 Anapol, Erin, Vania Osterland, and Kaitlyn Zydel. "Fashion, Authority and Portrait Engraving as a Courtly Art." //Artlab @ The Lowe 1// (8 May 2009): 4-5. Web. 16 Dec. 2010. . p.4 45 Mansel p.2 46 Ibid p.2 47 Ibid p.2 48 Annas p.45, from the essay by Alicia Annas 49 Ibid p.48 50 Hart, Avril, and Susan North. Historical Fashion in Detail: The 17th and 18th Century. 1998. London: V&A Publications, 2007. Print. p.12 51 Ibid p.138 52 Annas p.45, from the essay by Alicia Annas 53 Hart p.107 54 Annas p.107, from the essay by Anne Ratzki-Kraatz 55 Hart. p.64 56 Ibid p.50 57 Kipar, Nicole. //Kipar//. N.p., 2010. Web. 17 Dec. 2010. . "Female Baroque Clothing." . 58 Mansel p.16 59 Hart p.52 60 Annas p.28, from the essay by Edward Meader 61 Mansel p.15 62 Anapol


 * BIBLIOGRAPHY**

Anapol, Erin, Vania Osterland, and Kaitlyn Zydel. "Fashion, Authority and Portrait Engraving as a Courtly Art." //Artlab @ The Lowe 1// (8 May 2009): 4-5. Web. 16 Dec. 2010. .

Annas, Alicia M., Anne Ratzki-Kraatz, and Edward Maeder, comps. //An Elegant Art//. Ed. Edward Maeder. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1983. Print.

Bell, Howell. “Daily Life in the Court of Louis XIV.” N.p.: Charles E. Merrill Publish Co., 1985. Print.

Bernier, Oliver. //Louis XIV: A Royal Life//. New York: Doubleday, 1987. Print.

DeJean, Joan. //The Essence of Style//. New York: Free Press, 2005. Print.

Delpierre, Madeleine. //Dress in France in the Eighteenth Century//. Trans. Caroline Beamish. 1996. London: Yale University Press, 1997. Print.

Hart, Avril, and Susan North. //Historical Fashion in Detail: The 17th and 18th Century//. 1998. London: V&A Publications, 2007. Print.

Kipar, Nicole. //Kipar//. N.p., 2010. Web. 17 Dec. 2010. . "Female Baroque Clothing." .

Kipar, Nicole. //Kipar//. N.p., 2010. Web. 17 Dec. 2010. . "Male Accessories." .

"Louis XIV and the Court at Versailles." //Collections Online//. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2010. .

Mansel, Philip. //Dressed to Rule: Royal and Court Costume from Louis XIV to Elizabeth II//. New Haven and London: Yale University Presss, 2005. Print.

Zipes, Jack. "Setting Standards for Civilization through Fairy Tales: Charles Perrault and his Associates." //Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion//. 1983. New York: Routledge, 1991. 13-44. Print.