Flavio Biondo, an Italian humanist, in the early 15th Century, first coined the term “Middle Age” (”medium ævum”) to designate the period between the Classical and the enlightened Renaissance revival of classical ideas, philosophies, aesthetics. In English, Dutch, Russian and Icelandic, the plural form of the term, Middle Ages, is used, however, other European languages use the singular form (Italian medioevo, French le moyen âge, German das Mittelalter.) The popular word we use commonly today, “medieval”, is a contraction of the Latin medium ævum or “middle epoch”. Enlightenment thinkers used it as a pejorative descriptor of the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages would come to be viewed as a Dark Age during which many of the advances and achievements of the Greeks and Romans would be eclipsed by warfare and the gradual disintegration of institutions and culture that the Europeans had inherited from the Classical era.
The beginning of the Medieval period is introduced with the fall of the Roman Empire, when in 476 C.E., the emperor was driven from his throne by barbarian invaders. The dissolution of the once expansive and powerful Roman Empire allowed for the formation of tiny kingdoms throughout Europe vying for territory. There was great instability as a result of such fragmentation and ongoing invasions and infighting bewteen tribes such as the Vikings, Visigoths, and Gauls, as well as the Moors began to change the nature of European life. 
A lack of centralized political power in the greater region gave the Catholic Church tremendous power and civilian life - in terms of cultural growth, education, literacy, political involvement, and commerce - was in many ways truncated by an era of conflict and unenlightened dogma. With lawlessness and warfare widespread, community became focused around small powers, nobles or kings, who established control of land and created feudal systems by which to garner work from the peasant-class in exchange for access to land and protection from marauding tribes.
At the end of the 18th century as France was suffering through the Revolution (1789-99), changes in fashion were as dramatic as the change in the political order. What had characterized French style up until the Revolution had been costume resonant of the lavish, exquisite lifestyle of the French nobility and monarchy. By the late 1780’s France was severely in debt and the monarchy, enjoying its absolute power, along with the nobility and their feudal retentions were unable to align themselves with the majority of the population.
The peasant class as well as the more and more prominent bourgeoisie were no longer willing to tolerate the advantages given to the nobility, the clergy and monarchy and their excessive displays of privilege. What characterized the fashion of Louis XVI’s and Marie Antoinette’s court at Versailles was excessive adornment and exaggeration of form. Women at court would wear wide-spread pannier skirts, fitted and corseted tops with low-cut necks decorated with ribbon and lace, and the quintessential powdered white wig that would often reach improbable heights and be embellished with narrative touches. The fashion for men of the aristocracy during this period was not so distinct from previous periods, characterized by a well-fitted, tailored coat with skirts at back, tight breeches usually combined with stockings, and the white wig that was comparable to the woman’s wig in its distended form.
In a radical shift, all this gave way to a more simplified form of dress during the revolutionary period. People moved away from the costume that had been representative of the Ancien Regime and chose to do away with the full skirts, flurry of ruffles and bows and the pompous wigs that had been so popular. Men’s clothing was curtailed slightly, too, with pant legs lengthening slightly and the look becoming generally more severe. Women relieved themselves of the tight corset and favored the classically-reminiscent high-waisted dress with a freer form and wigs were discarded in favor of natural hairstyles also influenced by neo-classical aesthetic.
The dramatic change from the flagrantly opulent clothing so popular in Louis XVI’s reign to the more subdued and discreet neo-classical forms was neatly parallel to the political reclamations occurring at the same time. The dissatisfied populace, bolstered by the arguments of the Enlightenment, sought a return to classical ideals as applied to the political sphere and, peripherally, dressed themselves in those ideals to a certain degree as well.
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*image–Portrait of Marie Antoinette by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1779 *image–Madame Raymond de Verninac (Portrait of Madame de Verninac), born Henriette Delacroix, elder sister of Eugène Delacroix. Oil on canvas, 1798–1799 Visit the History Store for historical gifts and museum quality replicas representing the most significant historical eras. We offer Museum Reproductions, Replica Guns, Replica Swords |
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