Fashion, Nationalism, and Austro-Hungarian Images of Paris during the long nineteenth century

Patriotic anxieties about the hegemony of Parisian fashions provoked a nationalist reaction in the Habsburg Empire, as elsewhere. At first, Habsburg patriots rejected everchanging fashions and promoted instead a static national costume. As the fashion and textile industries progressed, however, patriots took increasing interest in creating national fashions, and thus in promoting their own capital as a rival to the French metropolis. In the multi-national Habsburg Empire, different national groups took a different attitude toward Vienna. Austrian Germans promoted Vienna as a rival to Paris. Czechs feared and attacked Viennese dominance, much as Austrian Germans attacked Paris. Hungarians, meanwhile, focused on promoting Budapest.