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The French have an eye for all things artistic, and fashion is very much a French art. Paris street fashion can appear as much an inspiration to the great fashion houses as inspired by them. Style can spell mess in the clutches of a meager imagination, so the French woman approaches it with all the soul of a studied painter.
In any great visual art, color mastery is essential and composition fundamental. Skilled at style contrasts, the French woman will mix the ultra feminine with the edgy, the finely tailored with the bohemian. With an impressionist’s eye, she will blend come-hither complements with the elements of surprise for a palette that requires a second look to fully appreciate.
Arguably few cultures have had as much influence on global style as the French. But in the world of French fashion, which came first, the fashion or the fashion icon?
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The desire to visibly self-express is an inseparable part of human experience, but fashion is an affectation rather than necessity. Fashion begins when a society reaches a level of well-being where dress becomes more than a cover, but a means of self-expression. In France, the recorded beginnings of fashion are found in the 15th and 16th centuries, when artists began documenting the dress styles of contemporaries through paintings.
French style reached the pinnacle of opulence, some would say ridiculousness, in the ever-mounting powdered wigs worn by both men and women in the 18th century. It seemed as though the height of one’s fashion sense was measured by the height and complexity of one’s wig. As wigs styles became ever heavier, wealthy noblewomen employed servants to hold them up. When a servant was unavailable or inconvenient, a hand held wooden crutch did the job almost as well.
In the same way trends are created today, fashion connoisseurs of bygone eras would emulate the rich and famous, the kings, queens, and noble elite. Royalty often had the greatest influence, both for and against certain styles.
With the exception of Louis XIV himself, perhaps no other French court personage had as much as fashion sway as Madame de Fontanges. What began as a few pretty ribbons for keeping the hair out of the eyes, became behemoth constructions of starched linen and grid-works of pins. Named after its inventor, the trend was called Fontanges, and it swept through the royal court with powdered intensity.
Louis XIV so disliked the gigantic headdresses that he condemned them, and nearly banished them from his court. The trend proved difficult to eradicate – that is, until an example was made of the exiled Queen of England, after which the fashion made a complete turn around to hairstyles that were as flat on the head as possible. In spite of all absurdity, the era of the pinned and powdered wig marked the beginning of French fashion influence in Europe.
Modern Legacies When it comes to style, fashion houses have become the new nobility - at their court, a population of willing vassals willing to assist in spreading their fame by wearing articles emblazoned with their logos. In today’s world, there is a close connection in meaning between fashion house and a fashion icon. But when strolling down a Parisian boulevard, you cannot help but wonder which came first?
