Wonderful Westerner's Discussion Thread :We Won!!! - Page 266

France is one of the leading countries in fashion industry, alongside USA, Italy, the UK, Spain, Germany, Japan, China and many others. Fashion has always been an important part of the country's cultural life and society, and Frenchs are well known for their attention of dressing-up well; haute-couture, the "prt--porter" and many others, the classy impression, remains traditional in the French way of living.

French design became prominent during the 15th"18th centuries, when artistic development in France was at its peak.The fashion has been an important industry and cultural export of France since the seventeenth century, and modern "haute couture" originated in Paris in the 1860s. Today, Paris, along with London, Milan, and New York City, is considered one of the world's fashion capitals, and the city is home or headquarters to many of the premier fashion houses, including, Cline, Chanel, Chloe, Dior, Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier, Herms, Lanvin, Rochas, Vuitton and Yves Saint Laurent.

History of French Fashion -

The association of France with fashion and style (French: la mode) dates largely to the reign of Louis XIV ^[3] when the luxury goods industries in France came increasingly under royal control and the French royal court became, arguably, the arbiter of taste and style in Europe. The rise in prominence of French fashion was linked to the creation of the fashion press in the early 1670s (due in large part to Jean Donneau de Vis) which transformed the fashion industry by marketing designs to a broad public outside the French court^[4] and by popularizing notions such as the fashion "season" and changing styles.^[5] Louis XIV notably introduced one of the most noticeable feature of the men's costume of the time : the immense wigs of curled hair.^[6] It is said these originated from the fact that Louis XIV started to wear wigs as he was getting bald, and to imitate this his courtiers put on false hair.^[6] The wearing of wigs lasted for over a century; they went through many changes, but they were never quite so exaggerated as during this period.^[6]

The extravagant, luxurious and evanescent styles of the French Royal court led the courtiers to run up enormous debts to keep up the pace, at the peasant's expense. Such fashion sprees notably ruined Marie Antoinette's reputation, and were one of the many factors paving the way for the French Revolution.^[6]

The Sans-culottes (lit. "Without knee-breeches") rejected the powdered wigs and the knee-breeches assimilated to the nobility and favored informal styles (full-length trousers, and natural hairs...), which finally triumphed over the brocades, lace, periwig, and powder of the earlier eighteenth century.