croisures a la victime
The elegants/haute Bourgeois of post Revolutionary France set the fashion.
Fashion a la Victime in post Robspierre France!! Read about the justification and use of terror the Jacobins advocated, then you will understand the outrageous atmosphere following the "Reign of Terror". The reign of terror gave way to a number of frivolous and gruesome fashions, one of which was the Victim's Ball. These balls were held in the residences of the haute-Bourgeois. These elegants who claimed to be Republican, ridiculed society by these outrageous soirees. The price of admission to one of these over the top soirees was that one had to to be a close relative or spouse of one who had lost their life to the guillotine. Invitations were so coveted that papers proving your right to attend had to be shown at the door, and some were even known to forge this certificate in their eagerness. All the rage at these grand balls was to have the hair cut high up off the neck, in imitation of "le toilette du condamne" where the victim's hair is cut so as not to interfere with the blade used for execution. This was the haircut given to people before they were put to the gullotine during the Terror that followed the 1789 Revolution.
See previous article Les Incroyables et Merveillueses
There were several popular hairstyles including cheveux à la titus or à la victime for both women and men, where the hair is given very short and choppy cut, and the "dog ears" worn by Muscadins, where long flops of hair are left on either side of the face, but cut right up to the hairline on the back of the neck.
Guillotine chic
- The Merveilleuses wore a thin red velvet ribbon worn round the neck, or red ribbons worn croisures à la victime, a kind of reverse fichu, or ceinture croisée, across the back of the bodice forming a symbolic x marks the spot. Croisures a la victime. Political Fashion.
- Both women and men wore small reproductions of the guillotine as jewelry.
- The Merveilleuses wore hats that were designed to look like the Bastille, a prison that had symbolized the cruelty of the old government. For supporters of the new government, these fashions symbolized the demise of the oppressive old rulers.
- The Merveilleuses wore gowns of simple loose dresses, like the nightgowns and underclothes worn by those who were herded from prison cells into carts bound for the public square and death.
These anti-Jacobins affected a lisp, and called themselves the jeunesse doiree. The jeunesse doiree roamed the streets of paris drinking, and toasting the monarchy and lashing out at patriots with sticks, or canes they carried. They used fashion as a direct political statement, an indictment of the new Republican order, and everything it stood for, including its Bourgeois notions, of liberty, and brotherhood, and equality. Equality being an excuse to make everyone dress and look, and think the same. The Jacobins promoted strict virtue, and Republican values, and enforced a type of political correctness, very similiar to today's America. The jeunesse doiree rejected this. We don't want your liberty, it is stained with the blood of our relatives.
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