Patriots Against Fashion

"During the era of the French Revolution, patriots across Europe tried to introduce a national uniform, which all members of the nation would wear in their everyday life. Patriot dreams of overthrowing 'the tyranny of Queen Fashion' emerged from the sumptuary tradition and Enlightenment ideas about social order, but reveal the diversity of national ideologies in the age of Revolutionary nationalism. Uniform schemes reflect the rise of social egalitarianism, as the source of imagined national sovereignty slipped from monarchs to 'the people,' variously understood. Since the feminine associations of fashion often trumped masculine national ideas, national uniforms also shed light on ideals of gender. This book, the first comparative study of national uniform schemes, discusses specific examples from Austria, Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United States, and Wales"--