Chapter 8 3. From horizontal stripes to vertical stripes and curved stripes (16th-19th century)-2

From servant to romantic Alongside the servant's stripe, which prevailed throughout the ancien regime, another stripe has come into fashion in modern times, which is no longer diabolical or pejorative, but positive on the contrary, and this is the stripe of nobility, Sometimes it's the stripes of high society, the stripes of good taste.It has been popular for decades since the 16th century, and later became popular in the pre-romantic period in the second half of the 18th century.This type of stripe first appeared on clothes, and later, it gradually appeared on other textile carriers, especially furniture cloth.

In fact, this phenomenon has been conceived in several cities of northern Italy since the end of the Middle Ages.In Venice, Milan, and Genoa, the great plague had just passed in the middle of the 14th century, and the joy of surviving through hardships drove young nobles and wealthy gentlemen to chase all kinds of exotic clothes.One of the most important categories of these fancy dresses is the striped patterned dress.These stripes, found mainly on the sleeves and tight trousers, took on a new character—not horizontal stripes, as one imposes on the socially excluded and God-forsaken, but vertical stripes .This change has more or less reduced the stigma that wearing stripes still and always attracts, but not enough to completely shut people up.The implication of disrupting social order and moral codes—and presumably intended by those who behave in this way—is still evident in the face of law and authority [47].This new form is unlikely to last long, and after 1380 it became less common, but did not disappear completely.

It remained neglected for the next century, when the staid Burgundian court imposed its code of values ​​and "leadership" on manners and dress across Europe.It was not until the end of the century, especially around 1500, that the vertical stripes became popular again.First in Germany, then in Italy, then in France and England.Times have changed, and these "trendy" stripes don't carry the same stigma they once did.A few monarchs even set an example by wearing striped tunics or trousers for portraits (such as Clouet's portrait of Francis I and Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII).The crown princes followed suit, and the vertical stripes became the stripes of the nobility, while the horizontal stripes remained mainly those of servants.Only the Spanish court, which inherited the austere style of Burgundy, resisted this general trend, and the first climax of vertical stripes appeared around 1520.Subsequently, the Protestant Reformation, wars, economic difficulties, political upheaval, religious strife, the Catholic counter-reformation all created favorable conditions for the return of more serious and formal clothing, on which gaudy stripes had no place . [48]

Stripes made a sudden comeback in the 1920s and 1930s in the first half of the 17th century. For 20 years, the dominant Spanish fashion opened a small game in clothing, where stripes tried to insert themselves, especially in men's clothing (sleeves, tuxedos, tight trousers).These stripes are generally dark in color, alternating ocher and brown, black and purple, and sometimes green and gold.This form concerned only the nobility and did not last long.It ended with the Thirty Years' War, near the middle of the century, and German mercenaries and their brindle clothing may have contributed to the stripe's popularity, but may also have contributed to its vilification[49].

What followed was a long period without stripes, with minor exceptions being court robes and women's accessories at the end of the century.But neither traditional French taste nor Italian or Germanic baroque was interested in striped surfaces or clothing.Just a certain fondness for the Orient and Turkey accentuated by an exotic streak now and then. Stripes became more common in Regency France, and then nearly all of Europe towards the middle of the 18th century.At that time, people liked to dress up as a sultan or a sultan princess, and a piece of striped fabric was enough to add an oriental color to the costume.

After 1775 everything changed.During the 10 years of the American Revolutionary War, stripes, rare and exotic a generation ago, began to invade the realm of clothing, fabrics, emblems and trim.This is the beginning of the romantic streak and the revolutionary streak, which was born in the New World but will find especially fertile soil in the soil of Old Europe.In fact, it was the harbinger of a phenomenon on a grand scale that would continue for more than half a century, involve all social classes, and would revolutionize the visual and cultural status of stripes and striped surfaces. The derogatory connotation that stripes had had since the Middle Ages was weakened, which favored the emergence of new types of stripes.This pejorativeness has not entirely disappeared—we will see later how it continues to exist in our society today—it was more prominent in the seventeenth century, and less obvious and common in the eighteenth century.A classic example of this is what the naturalists have said about the zebra and the place given to the animal in the value system. While zoologists of the 16th and early 17th centuries saw the "wild ass" as dangerous and imperfect and even unclean, Buffon saw the zebra as one of the most harmonious animals: "The zebra is perhaps the best-built and most elegantly dressed of all four-hoofed animals, with the form and grace of a horse, the lightness of a deer, and a black and white striped coat so regular and symmetrical that it seems It was drawn by nature with rulers and compasses. The thin alternating black and white stripes parallel to each other and defined, like the strips on striped cloth, are very strange; the stripes are distributed not only on the body, but also on the head, On the buttocks and legs, even on the ears and tail. The stripes of female zebras are black and white, and the stripes of male zebras are black and yellow. Both male and female, the short, thin and dense hair presents bright colors and luster Makes the colors more beautiful[50]."

Buffon is the son of the Enlightenment, and stripes do not cause him anxiety or disgust, unlike his predecessors.On the contrary, the stripes surprised and fascinated him as much as they later surprised and fascinated his readers and contemporaries.Of course, neither Buffon nor the Natural History were responsible for the fashionable romantic coloring of stripes, but the work fully confirmed the new attitude toward stripes: stripes could come into fashion. The popularity arose out of pro-American sentiment in France and those countries that hated Britain in the late 1770s.The American War of Independence is also a product of the Enlightenment. There are 13 red and white stripes. The American flag representing the 13 colonies that resisted the British crown is a portrayal of freedom and a symbol of new ideas [51].Stripes thus quickly acquired ideological and political stature: worn on the body, on the body, hung at home or outside, they could express hostility to Britain or pro-freedom movements.However, it is obvious that this is also a dress trend, whether in France or in Europe, it is rapidly becoming popular in society.Even Britain, which was initially targeted, "put on stripes" by the end of the 1780s.Since then, stripes have been seen everywhere on the old continent: gowns, blouses, men's knee-length tunics, overcoats, men's dresses, vests, petticoats, women's jackets, shorts, socks, trousers, aprons , ribbons, shawls, whether in court or in the country, most clothing is or can be striped.The stripes of the aristocrat and the peasant sometimes coexisted and sometimes mingled, as in pastoral and country scenes where painters and sculptors left much evidence.

The new form of stripes has gradually expanded from the field of clothing to the field of interior decoration and furniture arrangement: closets, door curtains, tapestries, furniture and various sheets and quilts have this kind of garland, small pattern and Chinese handicraft style of the previous era. Different earthy regular patterns, as neoclassical taste also favors the popularity of stripes.These stripes are thin vertical stripes and are brighter in color than in the 16th or 17th century.Common combinations are red-white, blue-white, green-white, green-yellow.Stripes open up a room, liven up the mood and bring brilliance to the surface it rests on.In the field of French decorative arts, the style of the Louis XVI period has come to an end, and the style of the Directorate period is mainly the extensive use of stripes [52].

In fact, for a few years now stripes have become a symbol of the ongoing revolution in people's consciousness.