The purpose of this research is to examine eighteenth-century French men's clothing. The plan of the research will be to set forth the historical context in which men's clothing styles emerged in the period, and then to discuss the textiles, form or silhouette, accessories, and influences on the form that men's clothing took throughout the century.
In order to provide a strong frame of reference for men's clothing in the eighteenth century, it is first necessary to note that by 1700, France had become the leading center of fashion. It is true, as Cunnington says, that throughout the century, "in spite of wars, there was a continuous interchange of fashions" (Cunnington, 1970, p. 69) between France and England. But owing to the popular-culture influence of the French court, French fashion became the standard by which all European clothing was measured, for both men and women. When the French Revolution did away with court life and democratization of French society began, the French influence on fashion remained strong for women but began to decline for men. What is more important to note, as we shall see, is that there was a rough equivalence in manifest men's styles in France and England, with England copying France in the first part of the century and France copying England in the last part.
The progress from first to last parts of the eighteenth century shows evidence of a gradual decrease in the extravagance of men's dress. In this connection, Barsis notes that "At the turn of the century, we find the people of Paris described as saucy and with little reverence for anybody. This spirit produced a kind of elegance of bearing and costume, which often made it impossible, at first glance, to recognize class differences--except, of course, for the very poor" (Barsis, 1973, p. 267). In the early part of the century, men's dress material was as likely as women's to be made of brocades and silk. Laver also cites "the embroi...