S 391 L556f

Lepage-Medvey,
French costumes

E.

pen nsylvan a
State Library
i

DATE DUE

DEMCO NO 38-298
.

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in

2015

https://archive.org/details/frenchcostumesdeOOIepa

mm

FRENCH COSTUMES

VOLUME EDITED BY ANDRE

GLOECKNER WAS FIRST PUBLISHED
IN SEPTEMBER MCMXXXIX BY THE
HYPERION PRESS, PARIS. PHOTO
THIS

LITHOGRAPHY AND TEXT BY

ETABLISSEMENTS GENERAUX
D'IMPRIMERIE, BINDING BY
AUG. MEERSMANS. BRUSSELS.

FRENCH COSTUMES
DESIGNED BY

LEPAGE-MEDVEY

WITH A PREFACE BY

ANDRE VARAGNAC
ASSISTANT CURATOR OF THE NATIONAL

MUSEUM OF FOLKLORE

PARIS

ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY

MARY CHAMOT

THE HYPERION PRESS

LONDON -PAEIS NEW-YOEK
MCMXXXIX
-

S 391 L556f

Lepage-Medvey,
French costumes

PRINTED IN BELGIUM
COPYRIGHT 1939 BY HYPERION,

PAR. IS

An

old French proverb says

the habit does not

forefathers implied that a man's clothes

make

the

monk

the wisdom of our

can mislead us as to his personality.

While the proverb is true where it concerns individuals, it is false when applied collectively
the traditional costume does in fact evoke the past life of the social group which wore it
for those who can understand its meaning.
I will not go as far as to say that national
costumes are equal to the history of a people an article of clothing is not a page of history.
However, look at the Bresse hat (plate 18) this head-gear which was worn by the
peasant women on the banks of the Saone as late as the nineteenth century seems incredible,
unless we recollect that certain French provinces were included, together with Flanders,
in the Spanish Empire.
M. Gabriel Jeanton, the expert on folklore, has shown us that the
Spanish duennas wore this sort of top-knot with black lace. The head-dress was adopted
by the rich women of Flanders, passed from there to the Franche-Comte and descended as
far as Bresse it is one of the most picturesque features of the costume which is frequently
worn by members of regionalist groups.
Throughout their history the people have collected bit by bit, by hook or by crook,
:

new costumes. Who among

On our return we find our bagage

the elements of
travels?

does not collect souvenirs during our

bursting with miscellaneous objects. It is

us,

the same with regard to national costumes. In the course of their long life nations not only
surround themselves with but wear on their persons a collection of objects the significance

which they would be unable to explain.

How can we read that strange book,
the traditional dress? As we have already
indicated in a previous publication on Central Europe, any traditional dress presents
prehistoric features, and aspects inherited from fairly recent history, sometimes even
contemporary fashions. Experts know well that such a mixture constitutes folk-lore.
But as far as costumes go this duality of origin is more apparent in France than in Central
of Eastern Europe.
There are two reasons for this which I will try to indicate.
First of all it should be borne in mind that France has always been one of the final
points of invasions.
Take a map of Europe, or better still, a map of Europe and Asia
the former appears to be a prolongation, or cape projecting from the Asiatic continent
towards the Atlantic in the West. At the very end of this immense cape we find the last
outpost, a kind of peninsula, which is France.
She has served as final buffer to many
prehistoric and historic adventures.
Periodically great waves of humanity, coming
from the Asiatic steppes, broke against her mountains, covered with forests, or on her
western shores where the earth ends and there is nothing but the Atlantic beyond the
reefs.
They were the people of the steppes, nomads, who rode small, sturdy horses and
of

galloped across the continent.

Consult the

map

again

a vast, limitless plain stretches

'westward' Beyond the mountains of the Ural and the buttresses of the Caucasus, Russia,
Poland, Germany, Belgium, the provinces of Artois and Picardy, France as far as Paris,
the Loire, Poitou and Aquitaine.

one of the highways along which formerly countless

covered waggons drawn by oxen must have passed, treking in the fashion of the Boers or
Americans trailing westward. As a matter of fact, man did not wait for wheels in order
to travel.
The European savage living in the wild bush, pushed forward along the
banks of big rivers like the Danube, carrying first his flint and later his bronze axes.
Small groups moved from lake to lake, and built dwellings on stacks others erected enclosures of cyclopean masonry on ridges bounded by two valleys.
All these people knew how
to spin and weave; they wore clothes.
The shape of their cranium is still found among
certain types in France to day and, believe me, certain fashions in dress also.
Since
the end of the Stone Age a number of diverse races have lived side by side in France. Even
in prehistoric times they must have been variously clothed.
See the diversity in their
funeral rites at certain times in certain regions the dead were buried at other times or in
other parts of the land they were cremated. Archaeologists have sometimes unearthed
collective burial grounds, and sometimes individual tombs.
It is unbelievable that the
people who honoured their dead so differently should have been clothed in a uniform
fashion France presents more human contrasts in spite of her present national unity than
any country in Europe.
The second reason for the variety of French traditional costumes is of more recent
date.
We must not forget that the national history of France is one of the longest in
Europe. For a considerable time the aristocrate classes, and especially sovereign persons
who kept courts, obviously having their own fashions, had constantly influenced the dress of
the population by reason of their prestige and the desire of the humble to imitate their
betters.
Can we explain this action simply by the splendour of Versailles and the Roi
Soleil ?
Things were not so simple until the last few centuries, and it is only in the nineteenth
century that France had acquired her present form. Up till then entire provinces were
being influenced by other sovereign centres. We must realise how late the centralisation
of France was accomplished.
Not only were important fractions of the French masses
influenced by neighbouring empires for a long time as I have remarked regarding the Bresse
hat but during all the Middle Ages princes and simple feudal lords kept their own small
courts, where the arts and consequently fashions evolved in a particular manner.
With the exception of the mountain and coastal regions where life has always been
hard, peasant costume had been too long under aristocratic influence not to have lost most
of its archaism.
How interesting it would be if a student of folk-lore collaborated with
a historian to determine the relative epoch and the probable origin of our regional costume.
A new light would be thrown on the currents of civilization in these unknown times, and
the curve of a coif, or the pinking of a bonnet would help to discover the old lines of political and economic forces which became so entangled in a Europe giving birth to nationalities.
Everyone knows that the great States might have been differently constituted
on the Continent than actually happened. For example the court of Burgundy might have
become a royal court with a little intelligence and not much genius. And have we ever
studied what ancient Lotharingia meant? Does anyone remember that a part of the provinces of the Kingdom of France were considered a foreign country up to the Revolution
as far as custom duties went, for their having refused to contribute towards the ransom of
King Jean le Bon, imprisoned by the English during the Hundred Year's War? All this
evokes the motley of French traditional costume.
It

is

Here then, is the infinitely complex canvas which, if we were in a position to recognise and follow each thread separately, would allow us to determine the origin and evoWhole
Shall we attempt this fine dissection?
lution of every article of these costumes.
volumes and the patient lives of scholars would hardly suffice. To those who would
attempt to follow these researches, I should recommend first of alia study of the treatise
But such
of Quicherat and especially that of Camille Enlart on the history of costume.
is not the aim of the present volume.
To begin with, the researches that I have mentioned and which will shortly be undertaken under the auspices of the Musee National des Arts et Traditions Populaires
Works relating
directed by M. Georges Henri Riviere have been barely sketched so far.
I may say that books giving
to local costumes are numerous (i) but of varying importance.
scientific descriptions and notably classifications of old types of costumes according to
Under these conditions, how
zones are extremely rare as regards the French provinces.
is it possible ever to fill the lacunae, since the daily wearing of traditional costume has

become a memory

in

most French departments?

Students are generally advised to check the regional revivals by comparing them with
nineteenth century descriptions and especially with the numerous lithographs and
romantic engravings on one hand, and with old photographs taken before 1900 on the other.
This is very excellent advice, but it is only part of the necessary work. Photographs are
rarely accurately dated and located, even when they do not deal with figures dressed for an
Usually they only serve to confirm information already acquired.
edition of post cards.
As to the descriptions by travellers of the last century, these, like the romantic pictures,
The details must be verified one by one
nearly always lack really scientific precision.

hope of achieving more knowledge lies in

the old peasant clothes stored away in cupboards and attics. As a result of the many
expeditions, especially in Sologne, conducted by him, M. Riviere visualizes the possibility
of reaching in another ten years or so, the marvellous source of documentation gathered
from systematic inquiries held on the spot by specialists, and of comparing the results of
these inquiries with data collected from marriage contracts and from inventories of posses-

Our

from another source of information.

sions officially

drawn up

last

after death.

Such is the state of our knowledge and ignorance, allowing for a few occasional
successes and we ourselves were determined to envisage these questions only after several
years of hard work along the lines already described. But man proposes and God disposes
at times public taste is ahead of the specialist's work.
What miserable artisans we all are,
each one in his atelier, where he dreams of an eternity of work before him! M. Uucien
Febvre has described this aspect of our life very well. The artisan is a bit of a wizard in
There
his way but even if he is a master craftsman he can only be an apprentice wizard.
are times when his pot boils over and upsets everything.
;

And such
The

is

the position of folk-lore experts to-day.

becoming fashionable, and like all fashions is imperious.

Fashion is a spoilt child. She wants everything at once. It is then that the good regionalists demur and protest against this fever
they have spent dozens of years collecting the
clothes and ornaments of their region.
They have had to fight against the false costumes
of their locality.
They have succeeded in reconstructing the last true costume worn by the
peasant women of a certain village, or hamlet. And suddenly fashion arrives from Paris
love of tradition

is

(1)

La Bibliographie Generate du Costume

et

de la Mode,

by Rene Colas

(2 vol.,

Paris 1933), includes 3101 articles.

and says

What

Deauville!

a lovely idea for the modiste.

This coif will

make

the sweetest hat for

out or covering our faces at that. Such is life, the life that
sweeps like a torrent over our customs. Let science continue her slow march; but she
has no right to withhold the result of her researches, however incomplete or rudimentary.
Let us have museums, plenty of them, where authentic costumes are pinned together in
It is useless crying

immense

Meanwhile the street will be full of dresses which

vaguely evoke an ancient province, and hats boldly inspired by this or that coif. And
these authentic costumes will be imitated, very inaccurately no doubt, in our dance halls,
our houses and at our fancy-dress balls.
Our modern life which loves bright colours and secretely hates the banality which
threatens our existence, thirsts for fantastic and gay visions which appeal to the imagination of adults as coloured albums and Epinal pictures do to children.
It is all a question
M. Medvey has deliberately omitted to represent the
of measure and common sense.
The
faces and bodies of the peasants in his costumes, and I can only praise him for it.
traditional costume of the French peasantry has become a relic, a relic for science, and it
would be impossible to represent it in its natural rural environment, except in a tedious
and erudite publication. I wish to tender warm thanks to my excellent collaborator,
Madame Germaine Lesecq, whose accurate method and rare devotion enabled us to undertake the difficult and delicate task of preparing the present work. Madame Henri Monceau
has furnished valuable documentation for the Bourbonnais costume (Plate 19) and Madame
I also wish to thank Madame
Felix Chevrier has kindly helped us for Lorraine (Plate 11).
Laperriere who explained certain details of the Savoyard costume. I hope that all these

glass cases like

butterflies.

will find here the expression of

my

sincere gratitude.

These delicately coloured pages about to be scattered far from the lands where
the archaic clothes, which served as distant models for them are stored, now faded and
smelling of lavender, can and must be the means of acquainting us with the soil and of
teaching us to know and love it better. One cannot attempt this without trying to
represent, however sketchily, their lineage.
Let us take these pictures in one hand and a bundle of slips in the other. Life
Well, let it then receive the testimony of a science in the making, in the lack
hurries on.
of a science already established.
Let it follow us into the wings, into the ateliers where
ideas are being ceaselessly cut out, beaten, forged and clipped in an endless attempt to adjust
them to life, which escapes and never stands still. Though we are not yet in a position to
present a natural history of French peasant costumes , we have advanced far enough in
historical research, thanks to M. Camille Enlart, to outline broadly the evolution of the
principal articles of clothing of our regional costumes for men and women and their many
variations.

from the comparison of the traNo sooner do we leave the highways with their fast
ditional and the prehistoric costume.
When
cars, than life in the country forcibly reminds us of the true rhythm of History.
you stop for a minute on the landes of the Limousin the silence provokes a singing in the
The surrounding country seems to be absolutely deserted save
ears of the town-dweller.
for the distant figure of a farm-hand guiding a couple of oxen harnessed to a wheelless
wooden plough, which resembles in many points the swing-plough of Roman colonists.
Occasionally the man speaks or sings to the beasts in harsh or soft tones, which carry
In the middle of the landscape under a chestnut tree stands a dolmen like
surprisingly far.

As

10

have already remarked,

I expect a great deal

a budding cathedral rising from the ground.

For twenty, twenty-five, thirty centuries

and maybe longer, the picture has been the same probably the lande had more grass, was
more steppe-like and the gorse was thicker. And what about the men? Did they wear
Or tunics, which we consider feminine? Were they draped like the Romans or
skins?
like the present-day Hindoos?
Everything tends to prove that the Gaulish peasant wore trousers and clogs like
the twentieth century French peasant. It is precisely in the male costume that the pre;

In spite of the rather tight-fitting breeches that

court fashions frequently imported for festive and ceremonial dress, many of the male
costumes have either straight trousers or pleated and puffed ones called bragou-braz in
Have you ever looked at ancient monuments
Breton. Both go back to prehistoric ages.
If you take into account the technique of
of Parthian or other barbarian warriors?
inevitable to artists who themselves wore draperies, we have here on
gathering pleats
historic element is

more

easily found.

these reliefs and on the pottery the prototype of our

modern

trousers.

M. Marcel Mauss has pointed out that the garments with sleeves and leggings
which differ so much from the ample folds of draperies, commemorated for us in Greek
We
statuary, appear to be one of the characteristics of subarctic or steppe civilizations.
must bear in mind the waves of migrations they start off from a vaguely defined domain
in Central Asia or Eastern Europe, to descend on one hand towards France and Spain,
These men were horsemen
and on the other hand, towards the near East, Iran and India.
wearing trousers and leggings as opposed to the Roman cavalry. The Legions encounin the Near East it was
tered them at the two ends of the world as it was then known
the Parthian cavalry that Rome never got the better of in the West it was the cavalry of
Vercingetorix, and later that of the Germanic tribes, which the Emperors hired as auxiliary
contingents.
The comfort of the dress was so obvious that the short breeches (femoralia)
became more and more customary in the time of Augustus. They resembled our shorts.
Later on, at the time of the Byzantine Empire, Rome adopted the long Gaulish braies
or trousers.
That is how Alexander Severus came to wear long white trousers.
It would therefore be wrong to think that the wearing of trousers was adopted in the
country by French nineteenth century fashions. Certainly the old rural costume often
:

included breeches, in imitation of the town-dweller of the eighteenth century,

breeches

ending in gaiters. But trousers were not totally ignored by the country people. In fact
we can assert that modern dress owes this garment to popular tradition, which is conservative
in spite of the caprices of aristocratic fashions. The Francs strengthened this tradition
which had been rather compromised by the customs of rich Gauls, who were Roman citizens.
Chessmen dating from the time of Charlemagne clearly show us the dress of the Frankish
troops the horsemen wore leggings over their breeches.
It is certainly very difficult to
Yet it
reconstruct the successive types of clothing during the Dark and Middle Ages.
would seem that long and straight trousers were chiefly kept as the traditional costume of
seafaring men, while the peasants and artisans appear, in the rare pictures where they are
represented, to be dressed like our boy scouts or attired in wider pleated and puffed
And
breeches, not unlike those worn by the Zouaves, or the bragou-braz of the Bretons.
it is among the sailors that the French Revolution was to rediscover the classical shape of
the long trousers, which were to become the distinctive mark of the patriots , the sansculotte as opposed to the aristocrats in stockings and buckled shoes.
Ever since then
the riding boot has given way to trousers strapped under the foot which became one of the
principal elements of romantic elegance.
:

II

Another immemorial

article of the traditional

male costume

is

surely the blouse.

wear it
the market gardeners; while the masons, delivery
The great increase of knitwear and
boys, street porters etc. gave it up quite recently.
leather during the Great War and as a result of sport is one of the principal causes for the
disappearance of the short and pleated blouse in the city trades and consequently in its
The blouse is a vestige of an antique costume in that it is an
actual uses in the country.
It takes us straight back to Mevoringian times.
L,et us consult
outer linen garment.
We find
a reproduction of one of the rare contemporary documents representing figures.
that the men are dressed in two shirts. The one underneath was called subucula and
corresponded to our modern shirt; the one on top was called dalmatic and was simply
a blouse with looses lee ves which reached to the knees, whereas our country blouses stop
mid-way down the thighs. The Gallo-Romans of the sixth century wore a cloak, with or
without a hood over this blouse. The Francs wore the Gaulish woolen sate instead of a
The shirt, blouse and cloak were retained indefinitely by
cloak, or a heavier fur cloak.
shepherds and herdsmen.
I have already mentioned the curious insistence on the double tunic, inherited from
Thanks to the researches of historians we can
antiquity, in Central European countries.
see through successive centuries the evolution of aristocratic dress which influenced the
peasant fashions in France. It was probably in imitation of the fashions of the Byzantine
Empire, the spiritual and economic supremacy of which extended far to the West, that
the double tunics of the men's costumes were lengthened during the early Middle Ages
It becomes difficult at this time to distinghuish the dress of
so as to trail on the ground.
the two sexes. The elongated silhouettes which adorn the portals of the Cathedral of
Chartres and many other Romanesque churches present a singular appearance not unlike
the pipes of an organ. It was the linen shirt (chainse) covered by the long narrow tunic
The people at that time wore either relatively short knee length blouses or
(bliaud).
This tucking up of
tunics; which were sometimes tucked up or gathered under belts.
the hems, which must have been rather uncomfortable, persisted among the habits of the
country people. In the fifteenth century the Tres Riches Heures of the Duke Jean de Berri
shows us mowers and haymakers attired in this fashion. During the eighteenth century
that was how (more than by the
this tucking up of women's skirts was very current
Certain Parisian trades

still

countrywomen imitated the paniers of aristocratic

country roads up to the nineteenth century obliged the peasant

use of rush bustles or padding) the

The bad state of

women to tuck up their skirts almost always.
But let us return to the long tunics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries of which
Towards the middle of the fourteenth
the Catholic sacerdotal vestments are a memory.
century the male tunics start suddenly to grow shorter, barely reaching to the waist.
The hose become unusually developed, rising as high as this new short tunic. The light
breeches worn by the nobles and bourgeois of the Middle Ages are really an ordinary pair
of leggings, fitting tightly, and they end by uniting into a single garment fastened at the
waist.
The breeches (our shorts) which covered the hose became superfluous and only
remained as accessories called trunk hose, while the rest of hose became the stocking (has
de chausse, from whence has, stocking, a word still used in French).
From the thirteenth century, and very clearly in the fourteenth, clothes became more
complicated and articles of clothing appear which we find in the traditional costumes as
well as in modern dress.
Each of the two tunics is again doubled and we find the shirt
At the same time the outer clothes
is covered by a doublet, the ancestor of our waistcoat.

gowns.

12

divided into coat and sur-coat, the ancestors of our

In the fourteenth century most of these articles of
jacket and overcoat respectively.
clothing were close-fitting, which distinguishes them from the dress of the eleventh and
(the Miaud, the ancient dalmatic)

is

during the fourteenth century that the close-fitting elements of traditional costume originated (we must not forget that nothing remains of the
And here it is that the practice of padding, which
loose tunics but the blouse or the cape).
we find in so many regional feminine costumes, starts. During the Middle Ages knitwear
Therefore

twelfth centuries.

it is

mentioned in the fifteenth century). The use of

knitwear for underclothes is quite modern. Lacking jerseys, our ancestors used padded
This technique was very important in deterlinings between two layers of quilted linen.
padding allows for aesthetic deformation, and helps to find a
mining the silhouette
fashion of line .
We have already recalled the paniers of the dresses during the Old
Regime. It was only the end of a long tradition, the first excesses having appeared in the
fourteenth century, especially at the court of Isabeau of Bavaria. At that time women
affected a waddle.
Even their hair was padded, and rose in fabulous hennins the high
As to the dresses, they
coifs of Normandy and Saintonge have kept the memory alive.
became corsets, that is to say short, slashed in the bodices, and laced. During the winter
the corset was lined with fur. It introduced in the country the wearing of close fitting
And
dresses in such heavy material, that they supported the torso without whalebones.
so it is that the body of woman since the fourteenth century up to the traditional costumes
In the case of the Savoyard costume the local
of our regions, has been stiffly trussed.

was unknown (knitted hose began

to be

aesthetic

demands

a square torso

the clock case

Many important

changes dare from this period. The neckerchief was one of the
most charming features of eigteenth century fashions and some of our regional bodices
seem to have imitated this fashion of Marie-Antoinette's court certainly it helped enormously to popularize the shawl, but the scarf had existed since the fourteenth century;
:

Enlart explains that it had originally been a travelling-bag, but had become a strip of
material worn over both shoulders or across one (i).
Therefore, we cannot exaggerate the important influence that aristocratic fashions
M. Marcel
in the fourteenth century exercised on the ulterior evolution of traditional dress.
Mauss often stresses the deep impression made by the coming of Isabeau of Bavaria and

time a taste for luxury was implanted in French mediaeval society.

The peasants came in to this heritage during the following centuries and made but few
subsequent changes in their dress until the nineteenth century, when the invasion of readymade clothes reached even French villages. When feminine dress was divided into bodice
(caraco) and skirt and certain masculine festive clothes included the cidotte a la Frangaise
her court; for the

first

and the three-cornered hat, the chief variations of the traditional costume since the Hundred
Years' War had taken place. The rest is a question of local evolution, of conservatism
or imitation peculiar to certain regions, villages or even parishes.

We have still to consider the influence of the romantic age on this series of evolutions.
But here the study

costume was impeded by a controversy on quite another subject.

began by studying legends, tales and superstitious beliefs instead of

of

Students of folk-lore
popular life. Eminent nineteenth century sociologists applied themselves to discover
The scent was
links between these traditions and the pagan religions of antiquity.
hot, and the hunt was successful.
Perhaps too successful. There was a time when every-

(i)

Le Costume,

Paris, Picard, 1916, p. 94.

13

from the use of the umbrella to the growing of pumpkins, was explained by solar
myths; so in folk-lore everything was due to pagan cults. The reaction was inevitable.
There are admirable souls who inform you that Carnival, which is dying out in our villages
was perhaps imported from Italy through Nice during the Second Empire. The same story
holds for dress. We are told that the authors of romantic lithographs might very well
have not only invented their so-called documents but even created local fashions by their
Briefly the scientists and the artists of a hundred or hundred and
fantastic pictures.
thirty years ago were unduly interested in local colour , and added it where there had
been little before. Carried away by their desire to admire the picturesque, they may even
have suggested to local tailors and embroiderers how to enhance their models and have
furnished them with designs for the embroidering of some of the Breton costumes.
I admit that I am not convinced, or rather that I believe such influences had always
I do
existed without really achieving the effect attributed to them in the circumstances.
thing,

not conclude from the fact that some of the present day Breton pottery is quite unlike
dress
that of seventy-five years ago, that the romantic artists must have influenced Breton
We know that the contemporary pottery comes from
fashions during the past century.
important factories founded at the end of the nineteenth century. It had little in common
with the older crafts, though it has its own merits. And it cannot be compared to the
conditions in which the local tailor worked and often still works, when he has not been

ousted by the competition of mass production suits.

To conclude, we find that in the majority of cases our first documents concerning
preceding
the dress of this or that region go back to the romantic age, and that during the
people
centuries painters, engravers, sculptors or draughtsmen represented the common
statement
clothed in a uniform of poverty, if not in truculent rags. From this very true
very
to the singular conclusion that peasant dress up to the romantic age was

we come

from century to century, reflecting the distant

By creating the Office of Folk-lore Documentation at the Palais
fashions of court.
material bearing
Chaillot, and by enriching it daily, M. Riviere methodically collects all the
upon this question. Is it too soon to venture an opinion? I do not think so. Already
have helped
serious local enquiries, of which M. Gabriel Jeanton has furnished an example,
alike everywhere,

and varied but

slightly

romantic period.
to discover the existence of very special regional fashions long before the
The relative uniformity of popular dress in documents earlier than the nineteenth century
simply shows us what has often been noted in other artistic spheres from the seventeenth
century onwards artists are not really interested in the people except on rare occasions.
Those among them who continued the admirable tradition of the fifteenth and sixteenth
are being
centuries and were not guided by convention, those painters of reality who
Nain,
patiently discovered by M. Rene Huyghe, have nearly all, with the exception of lye
been forgotten. How many canvases of the eighteenth century represent stereotyped
part of France
cottages, which give us at the most an idea of the artist's origin or of the
Why is it that we have no conventional farmers, tradespeople, peasants ?
that he knew best
:

Were they not at least part of the background?

I deemed it necessary to stop at these arguments for we had already
by bit a certain amount of information regarding the great age of traditional

collected bit
dress.

It is

What
always worth while to submit a bona fide objector to an objective examination.
we finally deduce from the contemporary tendency to rejuvenate the traditional costume is the general fact that in the nineteenth century, which was to witness their almost
change
complete disappearance, the different regional costumes tended to vary and to
14

more

rapidly.

It

was

like a

dying person's fever.

This

is

quite comprehensible

and

am

willing to concede this point to the partisans of the romantic origin of our regional fashions,

same way. I cannot suppose that the cause of this rapid

evolution of our peasant fashions was due to any propaganda of the intellectuals.
I simply
consider that the nineteenth century was the age which metalled country roads, built
railways and eventually produced the motor-car. Individual contact between countrymen
and the big centres increased so much as to become a mass phenomena, men and goods
travelled more easily.
And the small centre of civilization which harboured the local tailor
and his clients now received more and more manufactured articles from outside another
though

do not explain

it

in the

beginning to find its way

from town to town, and soon from borough to borough. And it will not be long before
fashion magazines penetrate as far as our villages.
The tailor's trade declines as a result,
before dying out completely.
thing to upset the tailor's trade

is

the fashion-plate, which

is

But these controversies would perhaps not arise if anyone knew more about the
tailor's singular trade it is time to evoke it if we want to surround our pictures of peasant
:

costumes with their picturesque social background.

Few people know that there used to be such disgraceful trades, that only the feeble,
the sick or the puny could follow them.
In Africa it is often the blacksmith who loses
caste.
In France it used to be the tailors and the rope-makers. An excellent chronicler
of life in Brittany a hundred and thirty years ago, O. Perrin, records the helotism of these
artisans in Armorican society and tells us that the tailor endeavours by every means to
attain a different position to that which he is entitled to by his profession.
The contempt
with which he is treated by our peasant nobility, e. g. the labourer, no doubt dates from
the far-off times when industry, now a reigning queen, or any other sedentary occupation
was considered an infamy. At that time only those who could not work in the fields or
fight followed such an occupation.
Therefore tailors were generally poor creatures disgraced by Nature, hunchbacks, one-eyed, lame, all the misshapen and incomplete male population of the villages.
It was natural that their physical inferiority and their feminine
trades placed them on the lowest rung of the social scale in the rough fighting days; only
the rope-makers, cacoux, that other caste of pariahs, were below them . (i)
It is possible that Perrin, who published his work in 1808, rather exaggerated the
lot of the unfortunate tailor.
Popular tales represent this artisan as a jolly little fellow,
shrewd and industrious, like most dwarfs, all the more amusing because they are not important.
No sooner was the wool spun, and the cloth woven by the village weaver, than the
tailor was expected he always settled down in the farmhouse for several weeks to enable
him to clothe the whole family. Though he was constantly on the move he rarely travelled
far.
He had his own circle of clients and never saw as much of the world as the stone-cutter
or the itinerant tinker.
Such was the master of local elegance, and we must try to imagine
him in order to understand how so many strange costumes evolved. He conscientiously
followed the old rules of his trade which he had been taught, allowing himself an occasional
innovation it was his way of doing his best. His clients, like himself were swayed by
two desires with regard to dress- fashions one was to conform to costum for the honour
and prestige of their little community in competition with neighbouring villages, and the
other to imitate after a fashion the marvellous attire worn by the bourgeois or the nobility,
who sometimes visited their lands between two sojourns at court. Poor, touching, fearsome
;

(1)

Galerie bretonne,

2nd

edition, Paris, 1838, vol. Ill, pp. 26-27.

imitations, artless

and naive,

for the peasant

had no

right to

wear the dress

of the great.

The originality of folk-lore is found in just this mingling or rather in this incessant and candid
With his amazing hereditary ability the local tailor created new fashions
juxtaposition.
with bits and pieces naively added to his stock of regional tradition.
The portrait of the tailor, who is rapidly becoming a legendary figure would be
incomplete if we did not mention the social significance of his functions in the heart of
these small communities. There has never been one type of traditional costume only
in the same village at a given time these costumes have always varied, not only according
to, sex but also according to age and wealth, which is the real basis of social condition among
:

the peasantry.
Charles-Brun

The
The widow
nees

and

us the following about feminine dress in the valleys of the Pyrecolours or details of feminine costume in the valley of the Ossau are significant.
Married women between the ages of twenty-five
is always dressed in black.

thirty-eight

tells

wear a black hood or cap.

The young girl has a white pinafore, the young

wears the same red skirt as other girls, but adds

married woman a black one. An heiress

Such peculiarities of dress have been described for other
a broad green silk ribbon (i).
They would appear everywhere if the studies of traditional costume had been
regions.
In Bresse, and especially
carefully conducted before the decadence of these costumes.
in the charming borough of Romenay, where the new Museum of Folk-lore obtained one of
the prizes at the International Exhibition of 1937, young girls of marriageable age wear
according to the amount of their dowry (2) and a
red ribbon under their chin to distinguish them from the ordinary girls.
So it was that the tailor was intimately connected with village life; he created for
each person what was in reality the emblem or living advertisement of that person's real
It is therefore hardly surprising that the tailor was traditionally chosen as gocondition.

lace bonnets with

more or

less lace frills,

between during betrothals? Perrin gives us a humorous description of him (3), as well as of
the extraordinary luxury of the three costumes which the bride had to wear successively.
This last trait helps us to place the man at a time when the traditional costume was part
A part of the reserve was worn on one's back in the form of precious
of the family wealth.
metal. The tailor deposited certain family possessions in embroideries and gold lace;
he invested them in ornaments much as a solicitor invests money in bonds.
Referring to the costumes of Central Europe we have noted the ancient function
I am inclined to believe that the accumulation of
of this marvellous use of ornament.
metal ornaments is not a recent phenomena, but rather the contrary. The increase of
trumpery finery during the nineteenth century was no novelty, but expressed primitive
desires; it occurred whenever highly coloured industrial materials arrived on the local
market. The adopting of certain colours in the traditional costume remains a sign of

merely concerns ordinary aniline dyes.

And now we must justify our choice from among the regional costumes. Modern
The need to evoke gay images and bright colours
taste inclines towards old predilections.
From Brittany to Alsace,
turns us towards the most archaistic parts of the country.
and to the Basque country we have concentrated chiefly upon the mountainous regions
and the coast where the oldest folk-lore is to be found. Several plates, often reproduced

archaism even

(1)
(2)
(3)

16

if it

Costumes des Provinces frangaises, Paris, Ducher, n. d., vol. I, p. 38.

See Jeanton Costumes bressans et Mdconnais. Tournus, Renaudier, 1937,
Ibid. p. 25 ff. The tailor as ambassador.
:

P- 3*-

from older models, furnish terms of comparison with other regions, where interchanges
since the preceding centuries were so frequent, and where the traditional costume varies
but little from the town fashions of old.
Foreign readers to whom the contemporary aspect of France is unfamiliar, must
not think that a journey across our country would put them in the presence of traditional
costumes. Some day, perhaps, the girls from our provinces will understand how much of
their charm they lose in adopting the banal uniformity of the latest thing . Charles-Brun,
the apostle of triumphant regionalism may count on the trump card which is feminine
vanity.
The day that our country girls will make up their minds to sew their own festival
clothes their ingenuity will be comparable to that which inspired the late village tailor and
that day the regional costume will have regained its place in the heart of popular art and
living folk-lore.

Andre Varagnac.

17

NATIONAL COSTUMES, VOLUME

II

FRANCE.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
It must be borne in mind that the following list does not purport to be a complete bibliography.
Besides, the recent publication of the two volumes by Rene Colas (Bibliographie Generate du Costume
et de la Mode, Paris, Colas 1933) and of volume IV of the Manuel de Folklore frangais contemporain,
by Arnold Van Gennep (Paris, Picard, 1938) has rendered this superfluous. But these exhaustive
catalogues allow for a certain utility to lists deliberately condensed, and which enable the reader os
aim in compiling
Such has been
a popular work to supplement his research to a certain extent.
The above-mentioned works, especially the second, offer enough critical indicathe following lists.

my

tions for me not to go into the same detail. I have indicated books where artistic presentation haf
been sacrificed to accuracy, as well as those where the sacrifice has been the reverse, such as the
work of M. H. Royere, G. de Gardillanne and W. Moffat. If is hardly necessary to add that an effort
has been made to give a selection most useful to profitable and pleasant research.

GENERAL WORKS
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STOP

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PITON

(Camille), Le costume civil en France

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CLOUZOT

Les bijoux populaires

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XXI,

(Henri),

1907,
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(Auguste), Le costume historique.

Types principaux du vetement et de la parure

rapproches de ceux de I'interieur de I habitation dans tous et chez tons les peuples avec de
nombreux details sur le mobilier, les amies,
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(Colas 2472).

CHARPENTIER
la

RACINET

pp.

70-77,

ill.

(Van Gennep

ENLART

DAUZAT

(Albert), L'origine et revolution des

costumes regionaux in La Nature, November
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BLUM

(Andre), Histoire du costume;

XVII e

au

XVIII e

ROYERE

et

CARDILLANNE (GraMOFFAT (E. W.), Les cos-

and

tumes regionaux de la France, Paris, Ed. du

Pegase, 1929, 5 vols, folio (Colas 2590).

GAUTHIER( Joseph),
4to (Colas

frangaises, Paris,

8vo (Colas

974).

188).

CHARLES-BRUN

Paris, Picard, 1916,

L'art populaire frangais

Costumes pay sans, Paris, Massin, 1930, large

Renaissance),

la

modes

siecles.

(Henry),

tiane de),

(Camille), Le Costume (vol. Ill of

Manuel d'arche'ologie frangaise depuis

the
les temps merovingiens jusqu'd

les

Introduction
by Maurice Leloir, Paris, Hachette, undated
(1928), small 4to (Colas 348).

au

Costumes des provinces

Ducher, 1932-1938, 2 vols.

(J.),

i6mo (Van Gennep

6323).

WORKS ON PROVINCES
AUVERGNE

ALSACE
Images du Muse'e Alsacien, Strasbourg, Hohen-

Museum, 1904- 19 14.

LAUGEL (Anselme) and SPINDLER (Charles),
Trachten und Sitten in Elsass, Strasbourg,
lohe

1902, 4to (Colas 1789).

LAS CASES

TALBOT,
Ferrand,

Auvergne, Puy de Dome, ClermontLaussedat, undated (circa 1865),

folio (Colas 2854).

DU RANQUET
d'art local de

POURRAT

(Charles) and ELZINGRE (Ed.),

Ceux d' Alsace; types et coutumes, Paris,
Horizons de France, 1928, 4to (Van Gennep

LAS CASES

35i)-

Musee

d'histoire

et

1924 (Van Gennep 5980).

(Philippe de), L'art rustique en

France, vol. II Alsace, Paris, Albin Michel,
undated, large 8vo (Van Gennep 5556).

SPINDLER

(H.),

Clermont-Ferrand (catalogue),

(Henri)

d' Auvergne, Paris,

and

ELZINGRE, Ceux

Horizons de France, 1928,

4to (Van Gennep 418).

France;

(Philippe de), L'art rustique en

V, Auvergne, Paris, Albin

vol.

Michel, 1933 (Van

Gennep

5559).

19

AUBERT

BASQUE COUNTRY

(L

.F.),

Lucien Simon,

FRANCISQUE-MICHEL,
Paris,

nep

Le pays basque,
Firmin Didot, 1857, 8vo (Van Gen-

426).

Peintures

le

et aquarelles de
peintre des Bretons, Paris

1925, large

Colin,

8vo (Van Gennep 6376).

BIGOT

(Maurice), Les coiffures bretonnes; cent

Saint-Brieuc,
modeles
Aubert,
differents,
undated (1928) izmo (Colas 330).

BERRI

DAUPHINE

LAP AIRE

(Hugues), Le pays benichon, Paris,

Bloud, 1908, 8vo (Van Gennep 463).

BOURBONNAIS
BONNETON

(Joseph), Le chapeau bourbonSoc. d'Emulation du BourbonXV, Moulins 1907, pp. 154-159

nais,
Van Gennep 6344).
nais,

Bull.
vol.

TIERSONNIER
bourbonnais,

Le Joli chapeau
d'Emulation du
XV, Moulins 1907, p. 215

DELAYE

(Edmond), Les anciens costumes des

Alpes du Dauphine, introduction by Hippolyte Muller, Lyon, Grange et Giraud, 1922,
4to (Colas 822).

LAS CASES

(Philippe de), L'avt rustique en

France, vol. Ill, Dauphine et Savoie, Paris,
Albin Michel, undated (Van Gennep 5557).

(Philippe),
Bull.

Bourbonnais, vol.

FLANDERS

Soc.

(Van Gennep 6345).

PEROT (Francis), Les Costumes Bourbonnais,

in La Renaissance provinciale, vol. II,
October and November 1907 (Van Gennep

ADAM

(Victor), Costumes de mar ins dessine's

dans les ports de Dunkerque an Havre, Paris,
Rittner and Arrowsmith, 1828, large 4T.0

(Colas 31).

6347)-

FRANCHE GOMTE

BURGUNDY

MONNIER (M.),

JEANTON (Gabriel), Le Mdconnais traditionLe peuple; le

naliste et populaire, vol. I
costume; V habitation, Macon, Protat, 1920
(Van Gennep 531).
JEANTON (Gabriel), Costumes bressans et
mdconnais, Tournus, Amis des Arts et des
Sciences, and Macon, Renaudier, 1937, 8v .
(Van Gennep 6348).
VIOLET (Emile), Vignerons et f ileuses, Macon,
Renaudier, 1934, small 8vo (Van Gennep
:

Vestiges d'Antiquites observes

Memoires de la Societe
Jurrassien,
dans
des Antiquaires de France, vol. IV, 1823,
le

pp. 328-412 (Van

Gennep

767).

PYRENEES
the French
(J.), The costumes of
Pyrenees, drawn on stone by J- D. Harding
from original sketches by J. Johnson, London,
James Carpenter, 1832, 4to (Colas 1551)-

JOHNSON

(Edouard), Costumes des Pyrennees

dessines d'apres nature et lithographies,
Paris, Gihaut, undated (1834) 4to (Colas

PINGRET

343)-

(sic)

BRESSE

2.394)-

JEANTON

(Gabriel),

Le

du

costume

pays

tournugeois, Sadne-et-Loire, in Art populaire

en France, vol. II, Paris-Strasbourg, Istra,
1930, pp. 179-186 (Van Gennep 6351).

BRITTANY
PERRIN (Olivier) and BOUET

(Alexander),

Galerie bretonne ou mceurs et usages

tumes des bretons de VArmorique,

Perron,

1835-1938, 3 vol.

et

cos-

Paris,

8vo (Van Gennep

LE BONDIDIER

Les vieux
Garet-Haristoy

(L.),

costumes

undated
(Colas
8vo
1797)(191
KRUEGER (Fritz), Die Hochpyrenden, D.
Hausindustrie, Tracht, Gewerbe, in Volkstum
und Kultur der Romanen, vol. IX, 1936, 8vo
(Van Gemiep 5454)pyreneens,

Pau,

7),

VITAL-MAREILLE,

Arts populaires de I'AquiEd. dAquitaine, 1937

Bordeaux,
(Van Gennep 575)-

taine,

62).

(Theodore), Souvenirs de VOuest

de la France; costumes bretons, Nantes, Mellinet, 1843-1844, 4to (Colas 2959).

VALERIO

DARJOU

Costumes

(A.),

bretons

d'apres nature, Paris, Moine,

i860) 4to (Colas 803).

DARJOU

(A.)

and

dessine's

undated

LERROUX

(A.),

(circa

Costumes

de la Bretagne, Paris, Moine, undated (1865)

4to (Colas 804).

HABERLANDT

(Arthur),

zur
Erlduterungen
Beitrdge

Volhskunde;
tonischen
bvetonischen Sammlung des
osterreichische

Zeitschrift fur

osterreichische

Wien, Gerold, 1912, 4to (Van

20

in

nature et graves, Bordeaux, Lavigne, undated

(1818-1819), small folio (Colas 1153)ROCAL (Georges), Croquants du Perigord,
Floury, undated
ill. by Maurice Albe, Paris,
(1935) 4to

(Van Gennep 5456).

zur

Wien,

XVIII

der

Volkskunde,

Gennep

(S. E.),

Recueil des divers costumes des habitants de

Bordeaux et des environs, dessines d'apres

K. K. Museums

Volhskunde
Eganzungsheft VIII zu Band
fur

bre-

GUYENNE
GALARD (Gustave de) and GERAUD

586).

LIMOUSIN

MONTAUDON
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Lemouzi,

(Andre), Le costume limousin,

vol. XVI, November 1908,

pp. 222-227 (Van

Gennep

6420).

LORRAINE
SADOUL

GELLIN

(Charles) and LAS CASES (PhiL 'Art rustique en France : Lorraine,

Paris, Albin Michel, 8vo, undated

lippe de),
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I,

(Van Gennep 5555)-

WESTPHALEN
naire

(Dr. R. de), Petit Dictionpopidaires messines,

traditions

des

Metz, from the author, 1934. 8vo

nep

and

(H.)

BAUDOUIN

(Dr.

Van Gen-

and

LALAISSE

(Hippolyte),
costumes de la
Seine-In ferieure, de I'Eure, du Calvados, de
I'Orne et de la Manche, Nantes, Charpentier,
2 vols, folio, 1852-1855 (Colas 294).
(Felix)

illustree, sites et

MAURICE

(C), Costumes pittoresques, Paris,

E. Morier, undated (1859) 4to (Colas 2016).

CHAUVET
trale;

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vie,

costumes,
Boivin, undated (19"),
ustensiles,

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(P.)

and

ARNAUD

(Ch.),

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costumes pittoresques du departement

1844,
Deux-Sevres, Niort, Morisset,
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PROVENCE
(Joseph), Le costume d'Arles, in
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CHARLES-ROUX,

Souvenirs du passe; le
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CANZIANI

(Miss Estella), Costumes, mceurs et

legendes de Savoie, adapted from the English
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(Arnold), En Savoie : du bertombe, Chambery, Dardel, 1916,

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POITOU, VENDEE

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GELLE

Cos-

BOURILLY

NORMANDY
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Bossuet, 1932, 8vo (Van Gennep 1677).

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ERRATA
woman read Costume of a man .
read Costume of a woman
Costume of a man
Costume of a woman
of Costume of a man read
Costume of a man
of Costume of a woman read

Instead
_ instead of
Plate
Plate 29 Instead
Plate 30 Instead

Plate

of

Costume

of a

OF PLATES

LIST
BRITTANY

Region of Quimper.
Region of Elliant.
Early costume of a man from the town of Batz.

1)

2)
3)

4)

Woman

5)

Region of Pont-l'Abbe.

of the

town

of Batz.

NORMANDY
8)

Region of Avranehes.
Costume from Isigny.
The village of Caux.

9)

Dieppe.

C)
7)

CHAMPAGNE
10)

Champagne.

LORRAINE
11)

Region of Nancy.

ALSACE
12)
13)

Costume
Costume

Man.

of a
of a

Woman.

FRANCHE-COMTE
14)
15)

Costume
Costume

Woman.

of a
of a

Man.

of a
of a

Man.

BURGUNDY
16)
17)

Costume
Costume

Woman.

BRESSE
18)

Region

Louhans.

of

BOURBONNAIS
19)

Costume

of a

Woman.

AUVERGNE
20)

Region

of Saint-Flour.

SABLES D'OLONNE
21) A woman of Sables d'Olonne.

BORDEAUX
22)

Early costume of a

woman

of

Bordeaux.

BASQUE COUNTRY
13)

24)
25)
26)

Basque dancer with hobby-horse.

Basque Dancer.
Basque Dancer.
Costume of a Basque Woman.

PYRENEES
27)
28)
29)
30)

Costume of a married woman

Val d'Aran Costume of a Man.
Bethmale Valley Costume of a Man.
Bethmale Valley Costume of a Woman.

Eaux-Bonnes

SAVOY
31) Region of Saint-Sorlin.
32) Region of Saint-Jean-d'Arves.
33) Tarentaise region.
34) Region of Saint-Colomban-des-Villards.

PROVENCE
35)
36)

A woman

of Aries.

The Tambourine player.

The Farandole dancer.

37)
38) Nice.

LOZERE
39)

Costume

of a

Man.

Costume

of a

Woman.

CORSICA
40)

BRITTANY
REGION OF OUIMPKR

BRITTANY
REGION OF EIXIANT

BRITTANY

EARLY COSTUME OF A MAN FROM THE TOWN OF BATZ

BRITTANY

WOMAN OF THE TOWN OF BATZ

BRITTANY
REGION OF PONT-T'ABBE

NORMANDY
REGION OF AVRANCHES

NORMANDY
COSTUME FROM ISIGNY

NORMANDY
THE VILLAGE OF CAUX

NORMANDY
DIEPPE

CHAMPAGNE

LORRAINE
REGION OF NANCY

ALSACE
COSTUME OF A MAN

AXSACE
COSTUME OF A

WOMAN

FRANCHE-COMTE
COSTUME OF A WOMAN

FRANCHE-COMTB
COSTUME OF A MAN

BURGUNDY
COSTUME OF A WOMAN

BURGUNDY
COSTUME OF A MAN

BRESSE
REGION OF LOUHANS

BOURBONNAIS
COSTUME OF A WOMAN

AUVERGNE
REGION OF SAINT-FLOUR

SABLES D'OLONNE
A WOMAN OF SABLES D'OLONNE

BORDEAUX
EARLY COSTUME OF A WOMAN OF BORDEAUX

BASQUE COUNTRY
BASQUE DANCER WITH HOBBY-HORSE

BASQUE COUNTRY
BASQUE DANCER

BASQUE COUNTRY
BASQUE DANCER

BASQUE COUNTRY
COSTUME OF A BASQUE WOMAN

PYRENEES
EAUX-BONNES COSTUME OF A MARRIED WOMAN
:

PYRENEES
VAL D'ARAN COSTUME OF A MAN
:

29
PYRENEES
BETHMALE VAIXEY COSTUME OF A MAN
:

PYRENEES
BETHMALE VALLEY COSTUME OF A WOMAN
:

SAVOY
REGION OF SAINT-SORIJN

SAVOY
REGION OF SAINT-JEAN-D'ARVES

SAVOY
TARENTAISE REGION

SAVOY
REGION OF SAINT-COLOMBAN-DES-VILLARDS

PROVENCE
A WOMAN OF ARLES

PROVENCE
THE TAMBOURINE PLAYER

PROVENCE
THE FARANDOEE DANCER

38
PROVENCE
NICE

lozere
costume of a man

CORSICA
COSTUME OF A WOMAN

v.2 3

10M-8-41

PISL-U
28M-S-4I

<*JQ
gfe"

rencn_cgstumes.

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

STATE LIBRARY

L 5561

HARRISBURG
3

^eVurn

ffiff before the

,ast date

stamped below.