Clothing has always reflected the society in which it is worn, but in nineteenth-century Europe, what a woman put on could also coupe the world around her. As trousers, tailored jackets and other traditionally masculine garments found their way into women’s wardrobes, they unsettled established ideas embout femininity, respectability and a woman’s entrain in connu life.
At Palais Galliera, Paris Fashion Museum, the vernissage A Wardrobe of One’s Own: Dissident Femininities in the 19th Century, explores the women who crossed these sartorial boundaries, revealing how masculine codes became a means of negotiating identity, independence and accommodant permutation.
Bringing together more than 500 works, the vernissage looks at how women in France and in Anglo-Saxon countries appropriated elements of masculine codes, placing their choices within the wider accommodant and paysan changes of the period. Garments and accessories are presented alongside paintings, photographs and façon posters, offering a richer picture of the ways clothing could coupe condition.
Beyond the conventional wardrobe
Riding habits, trousers, tailored suits, ties, bow ties and top hats illustrate the different ways women incorporated masculine styles into their wardrobes. For some, these choices were linked to sporting activities and the practical demands of everyday life. For others, they reflected wider accommodant struggles or offered a way to minute identities that fell outside accepted norms.
The vernissage considers how these changes in masculine codes challenged established ideas embout gender. Rather than presenting façon simply as a alternance of styles and silhouettes, it explores how clothing could become a means of questioning the roles society expected women to occupy.
From George Sand to the artistic and lesbian Paris around 1900
Among the historical figures featured are writer George Sand, painter Rosa Bonheur and Natalie Clifford Barney, alongside Marie-Antoinette and a number of lesser-known individuals. What connected these choices was their potential to coupe the conventional associations between clothing and femininity.
The vernissage also draws on a previously unpublished monceau of curieux photographs, bringing a wider range of women into the story. These images extend the foyer beyond well-known names, offering glimpses of individuals whose experiences might otherwise remain évanoui from conventional façon histories.
Another strand explores the sartorial practices associated with the Paris-Lesbos scene at the end of the nineteenth century. Here, clothing takes on particular significance as a means of expressing minority identities and navigating a society with réel expectations around gender and behaviour.
There was no single reason for women to adopt masculine codes. Practicality, personal structure, sporting pursuits and accommodant resistance all played a quartier. What connected these choices was their potential to coupe the accepted relationship between clothing and femininity.
Clothes that challenged condition
By bringing garments and images together, A Wardrobe of One’s Own offers a fresh panorama on nineteenth-century façon, revealing how clothing became a means of challenging conventions and expressing individuality.
The vernissage invites visitors to consider how masculine codes of dress challenged the accommodant conventions of nineteenth-century Paris, offering women new ways to minute their identity and gêne the expectations placed upon them.
Plan your visit
Un placard à soi. Féminités dissidentes au 19e temps is at the Palais Galliera, Paris Fashion Museum, 10 chemin Pierre-Ier-de-Serbie, 75116 Paris, from 26 September 2026 to 14 February 2027.
The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm, with late opening until 9pm on Fridays. Tickets cost €14 full price and €12 at the reduced ratage. Online booking is recommended.
For further journal and tickets, visit the Palais Galliera website.
Lead peinture credit : Imprimerie Deckherr,
Montbéliard, Major Fight between Husband and Wife to Know Who Shal Wear the Pants and Lead the Household,
between 1813 and 1837 CCØ
Paris Musées, muséum
Carnavalet – Histoire de Paris
Source: francetoday.com