The Little White Dress: Politics and Polyvalence in Revolutionary France

The slim, simple chemise of the 1800s came into fashion at the outbreak of the French Revolution. Believed to be a sartorial tribute to democracy modeled on an ancient Greek women's gown, the dress became a staple of neoclassical style. In fact, however, its genealogy is much more complex. It was first worn by the French queen, whose reference was Caribbean, not Greek. Thereafter, Napoleon used the dress in an imperial context, shifting its meaning from Greece to Rome in line with his political agenda. Women's magazines depicted the dress differently still: they presented exotic accessories to go along with the dress, such as liana-vines, Oriental-style tunics, and chain-link necklaces. Looking at these accessories, and at magazine descriptions, backgrounds, and stories, this essay shows how polyvalent the dress was. It brought to discussion a number of changing ideas about social politics, including colonialism, Jewish emancipation, and the abolition of slavery.