Napoleonic Pleasures

A ring given by General Bonparte to Josephie de Beauharnais On 9 March, 1796, the young general Bonaparte was joined in matrimony to ‘M. J. R. Tascher' (Josephine) at a civil ceremony. Whilst not the wedding ring itself, the gold and enamel ring here, worked into the initials ‘NB' and bearing an inscription reading ‘sincere […]

Women’s underwear during the First Empire Underwear was originally worn to protect the wearer's skin from often richly decorated clothes that could irritate or scratch the skin. They were also intended to add an extra layer to keep out the cold and make warm conditions more bearable, whilst also resculpting the body to suit the […]

Fashion accessory: the shawl The shawl is a generally square or triangular piece of material worn by women across their shoulders, over the top of their dresses, as an additional layer of warmth. In Asia and the Far East, shawls were traditionally worn by both men and women. The item of clothing arrived in Europe […]

M. Durochereau’s Eau de Cologne On 29 January, 1811, a certain Suireau Durochereau, based at Neuve-Saint-Eustache in Paris, was awarded a five-year patent for his eau de Cologne. Durochereau, based at Rue Saint-Neuve-Eustache in Paris, was one of the first French perfumers to patent an alcohol-based fragrance, the recipe for which appeared in a later compilation […]

The hairstyle developments during the Second Empire The Capote, the Rodomengo, the Fanchon, and the Diadem Tress During the Second Empire, the empress Eugénie in France was the queen of fashion and taste. What she wore and how she dressed her hair became all the rage. Long hair was seen as particularly feminine – indeed some let […]

The bustle The Second Empire was to be the setting for both the glory days and the decline for the crinoline fashion. By the end of Napoleon III's reign, the voluminous crinoline styles of the 1850s, made famous by the work of celebrated British designer, Charles Worth, had begun to fall out of fashion. It was in 1867 […]

Ceremonial dress and train belonging to the wife of Maréchal Davout When present during ceremonies or receptions being held at the Palais des Tuileries, women of the imperial court were obliged to wear “well-adorned” dresses, with a low neckline and high waist over a long, figure-hugging skirt, which would be richly embroidered with gold and […]

The Empress of the French, In her Bridal Costume The invention and proliferation of the sewing machine is a milestone in the history of textiles and dress. The pace of industrial change during the nineteenth century was such that from its date of conception in 1846 it took only twenty years for machine stitched garments […]

The return of the stiff corset The stiff corset, with its low neck to better display the individual's natural “charms”, was very popular during the Ancien Régime and into the Consulate, but was abandoned come the First Empire, during which a lighter, more comfortable model, known as the “corset à la Ninon” (1810), was preferred. The […]

On 2 April, 1810, the famous “second” marriage between Napoleon I and Marie-Louise of Austria took place. The grand ceremony took place in the “Salon Carré”, in the Palais des Tuileries, which had been transformed into a chapel especially for the occasion by the architect Fontaine. For the ceremony, the future Empress was dressed in […]