The Politics of Appearances - Representations of Dress in Revolutionary France

In the turbulent political and social landscape of Revolutionary France, dress played a major role in defining and displaying new identities. What people wore was, in fact, a vital symbol of their allegiances and beliefs. Drawing on a wide range of documentary and visual sources, this book offers a vivid picture of the highly charged politics of Revolutionary appearances. The author explores the dynamic complexity of the new socio-political world, where the identification of who stood for what was such an urgent, if vexed, issue: where identical items of dress could stand for opposing political ideologies, where a variety of institutions - from local societies to the national assembly - tried to define the meanings associated with clothing, and where the clothes a person wore could seal their fate. Tracing the stories surrounding the liberty cap, the different manifestations of official dress, the tricolore cockade and the sans-culotte provides a new and exciting insight into the complexities and uncertainties that made up life in Revolutionary France and the political culture that it created.>

About the author

Richard Wrigley is Emeritus Professor of Art History at the University of Nottingham, UK. He is currently writing a history of the flaneur.

Product details

• Authors: Richard Wrigley, Wrigley Richard
• Publisher: Berg Publishers Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.10.2002
• EAN: 9781859735091
• ISBN: 978-1-85973-509-1
• No. of pages: 328
• Dimensions: 138 mm x 216 mm x 13 mm
• Subjects: Guides > Health > Beauty/cosmetics; European History, HISTORY / Modern / General, HISTORY / Europe / General, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, DESIGN / Fashion & Accessories, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Customs & Traditions, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, c 1500 onwards to present day, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Fashion & society, Fashion and textile design, Cultural studies: dress and society