When there is a new fashion history book, I am all over that. Because we do not get many (a shame given how popular it is with the general public), I make a point to purchase as many as I can. Fashion is a useful tool to re-examine history, and I think that looking at one of the biggest revolutions in history through the lens of fashion is brilliant. This week’s Style File Friday is all about Liberty Equality Fashion by Anne Higgonet!
Liberty Equality Fashion: The Women Who Styled the French Revolution, Anne Higgonet
Joséphine Bonaparte, future Empress of France; Térézia Tallien, the most beautiful woman in Europe; and Juliette Récamier, muse of intellectuals, had nothing left to lose. After surviving incarceration and forced incestuous marriage during the worst violence of the French Revolution of 1789, they dared sartorial revolt. Together, Joséphine and Térézia shed the underwear cages and massive, rigid garments that women had been obliged to wear for centuries. They slipped into light, mobile dresses, cropped their hair short, wrapped themselves in shawls, and championed the handbag. Juliette made the new style stand for individual liberty.
The erotic audacity of these fashion revolutionaries conquered Europe, starting with Napoleon. Everywhere a fashion magazine could reach, women imitated the news coming from Paris. It was the fastest and most total change in clothing history. Two centuries ahead of its time, it was rolled back after only a decade by misogynist rumors of obscene extravagance.
New evidence allows the real fashion revolution to be told. This is a story for our time: of a revolution that demanded universal human rights, of self-creation, of women empowering each other, and of transcendent glamor.
Why You Should Read This…
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with Liberty, Equality, Fashion but it has quickly become one of my favourite books of 2025! I know that the French Revolution is always a popular topic in history but now more than ever, we are seeing talk of revolution and I think that this dive into the fashion of revolution is more timely than ever. (Sorry to repeat a phrase twice in a sentence, friends!)
Higgonnet used the framing device of a handful of women to explore fashion before, during, and after the Revolution, and I think this worked incredibly well. We were able to also explore their lives and learn more about them (also giving further colour to the revolution). While Empress Josephine is fairly well-known, the other women would be lesser-so for most of us.
I very much appreciated that this book is written both for the reader who is brand-new to the topic and someone who is very experienced. That is tough to do as an author, but Higonnet has tackled it well.
Elisabeth Lagalee’s narration is also fantastic; she gives life to these complex women, and to their fashion. That seems like it would be obvious but given that fashion is so often dismissed as trivial, I felt like she gave it appropriate weight in her narration.
♠
Want more fashion from the French Revolution? Check out my post on Rose Bertin, Marie Antoinette’s stylist!
Is Liberty Equality Fashion by Anne Higgonet on your to-read list?
Cheers,
The Historian
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