THE 17TH CENTURY

France achieved a dominant position in world affairs and fashions during the reign of King Louis XIV, from 1643 to 1715. All of Europe followed French fashions except Spain. In France and elsewhere the women’s farthingale went out of style and was replaced by a stately gown worn with a bustle (padded frame at the back) and a train that trailed behind. The gown’s bodice typically ended in a V-shape over the abdomen, and bright colors gained favor. In Spain the farthingale remained fashionable and spread to the sides even farther than it had before.

In place of doublets and trunk hose, men in France adopted a three-piece suit, consisting of knee-length breeches, a knee-length coat, and a waistcoat or vest. The suit was worn with a shirt and cravat (neckerchief that was a precursor of the necktie). A softly falling collar replaced the ruff. Thus the modern business suit existed in an early stage by the 17th century. But unlike men’s suits today, the pieces of an 18th-century suit were typically of different fabrics.

Under Louis XIV the French court at Versailles became the center of Western fashion, and fashionable clothing was produced nearby, in Paris. Paris remained the capital of women's fashion for the next 300 years. Yet despite fashion’s economic importance, it produced controversy. Moralists in France and elsewhere argued that fashion undermined the rigid social hierarchy because middle-class people could copy the fashions of the aristocracy, often buying secondhand the very clothes that their social superiors had once worn. These critics deplored the fact that even a milkmaid could look like a lady.

Fashion inspired controversy in England because it fed female vanity as women competed with one another for elegance in dress. Even though changes in fashion promoted trade, keeping up with fashion proved expensive.

Clothing in England during the 17th century came to symbolize the difference in beliefs between cavaliers, who supported the king and wore luxurious, colorful aristocratic garb, and their political opponents, the austerely dressed Puritans, who wore dark, drab colors. When Puritans settled New England in the 1600s, they brought with them the Puritan styles then current in England.