Fashion is much more than just wearing the right look with the right silhouette and the right
color. Fashion is a visual art form, with the self as a medium.
i And therefore a performance
art where the display of a body in action in public life is an essential element. With fashion
we present our social- and individual identity to the world, all captured in the shifting
moments of our public appearance. As such fashion is a cultural phenomenon that reflects
cultural and social values of specific time periods by different aesthetics. When in the early
1860s the first French couture houses started to design the first made-to-measure outfits they
started to use models to show their new creations to customers in their salon. Exactly here
starts the modernization of women dress.
However, interest in strolling, performing a dynamic fashionable body, had risen much
earlier in the world of men’s fashion. Along with the rise of the dandy in the early 1800s the
introduction of a culture of parading in the anonymous modern city started –and this stayed in
the first part of the century only a privilege for men. This fashionable public performance
was radically different from the fashion presentation of the French royal court in the
eighteenth Century which was a theatrical, and ritual prescribed event.
Due to the new ideals of Enlightenment and the French Revolution major changes in the
social order and public life had taken place. The nobleman and royals had lost their power
and the bourgeoisie emerged in the wake of enlightenment, industrialization and
democratization. It was no longer one’s origin but one’s taste and style that could determine
one’s success in life. For the first time becoming successful in life laid within everyone’s
personal remit. Showing taste and dressing fashionable as well as conveying interest in art,
was now the right way to gain status.
ii
The person who took the lead in this new fashion world was the Dandy. Although he lacked a
noble background he was very skilled in following the latest fashion with exceptional
dedication. He managed to attract admiration from the public audience who assumed his
refined looks were a reflection of his soul, impeccable taste and his refined manners. To
underline the difference with the extravagant and ostentatious nobility, the dandy chose a
sober outfit: a black suit which emphasized his different role (middle class) in society.
(Hollander 1994:3-10) More important, it marked the start of a different aesthetic and very
different perception of the male body: the suits with a cut based on Greek physical ideals
transformed the male body radically into timeless, abstract form only details mattered. It
showed a body in ideal proportions whilst underlining the movement. The focus of the new
sober fashion, was on small details such as the kind of woolen fabric, the type of collar or tie.
And the ideal platform to present himself was the entirely new environment of the urban city.
In doing so, the dandy gave expression to a new, modern urban feeling. During the nineteenth
century, the city culture – especially in Paris – became more and more focused on the transient
aesthetics of daily public life. Newspaper started to write stories about daily novelties such as
the department stores and the newly constructed boulevards. City centers as well as the parks
became the ideal platform for strolling and parading; for enjoying one selves with gazing: to
play of looking and to be looked at. All this turned the anonymous city life into a spectacle
for the masses, a reality to be experienced collectively. The fashion performance on the
street became an essential part of this modern culture