THE SUN KING LOUIS XIV
Louis XIV The Sun King - Colbert Presenting the Members of the Royal Academy of Sciences to Louis XIV in 1667, by Henri Testelin. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
History recalls King Louis XIV who ascended the throne of France on 7 June 1654 as a vain profligate person only interested in self-aggrandisement and his own divine right as king. But look beyond the glamour of the sun king and it can be seen that many of his vanities brought benefit to France.
When he ascended the throne the aristocrats of France wore Spanish fashions set by the Spanish court, bought their silks from Milan, their mirrors and lace from Venice, and their tapestries from Brussels. It was not that they had a problem with supporting their own industries; just that they wanted the best of everything and at that time the best came from elsewhere.
Image: Louis XIV Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Colbert by Claude Lefebvre. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Louis, determined to change French consumer culture, and with his First Minister of State John-Baptiste Colbert they made sweeping changes and improvements to the French economy. They founded manufacturers for fine furniture, textiles, and jewellery which went on to become the foundation of the French luxury goods market and the French good taste that would dominate the fashionable world throughout the following century until the French revolution.
Image: Louis XIV The Sun King, Mariage du duc de Bourgogne le 7 décembre 1697, tableau d'Antoine Dieu. Versailles. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
He furnished Versailles with beautiful French furniture and revived the tapestry manufactory at Gobelins so that it could be decked out in French tapestries of the finest quality. He set the fashion with swathes of lace from cravat to petticoat breeches, only wearing the finest French silks and required all his courtiers and nobles to do the same. Foreign lace, cloth and trimmings were banned and as an example when Louis’s son wore a foreign coat he was forced to take it off and burn it.
Image: Louis XIV 'Boutique de Broderie'. Image courtesy of Sarah Jane Downing.
To further stimulate the economy - now dominated by textiles with one in three Parisian wage earners making their living within the trade – they defined the fashion seasons that have become the basis of haute couture. Courtiers were to wear fine light-weight French silks for spring and summer and heavier satins and velvets for winter, but woe betide anyone who attempted to wear their summer finery after 1 November. The manufactories were ordered to produce new distinct textile designs each season so there was no opportunity to pass off last year’s velvets as new either!
Read more about the changes to the French textile industries wrought by Louis XIV in Sarah Jane Downing's articles for Selvedge about Alençon lace and Gobelins Tapestry (click on the links to read the full articles) in issue 82 and issue 62.
History recalls King Louis XIV who ascended the throne of France on 7 June 1654 as a vain profligate person only interested in self-aggrandisement and his own divine right as king. But look beyond the glamour of the sun king and it can be seen that many of his vanities brought benefit to France.
When he ascended the throne the aristocrats of France wore Spanish fashions set by the Spanish court, bought their silks from Milan, their mirrors and lace from Venice, and their tapestries from Brussels. It was not that they had a problem with supporting their own industries; just that they wanted the best of everything and at that time the best came from elsewhere.
Image: Louis XIV Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Colbert by Claude Lefebvre. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Louis, determined to change French consumer culture, and with his First Minister of State John-Baptiste Colbert they made sweeping changes and improvements to the French economy. They founded manufacturers for fine furniture, textiles, and jewellery which went on to become the foundation of the French luxury goods market and the French good taste that would dominate the fashionable world throughout the following century until the French revolution.
Image: Louis XIV The Sun King, Mariage du duc de Bourgogne le 7 décembre 1697, tableau d'Antoine Dieu. Versailles. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
He furnished Versailles with beautiful French furniture and revived the tapestry manufactory at Gobelins so that it could be decked out in French tapestries of the finest quality. He set the fashion with swathes of lace from cravat to petticoat breeches, only wearing the finest French silks and required all his courtiers and nobles to do the same. Foreign lace, cloth and trimmings were banned and as an example when Louis’s son wore a foreign coat he was forced to take it off and burn it.
Image: Louis XIV 'Boutique de Broderie'. Image courtesy of Sarah Jane Downing.
To further stimulate the economy - now dominated by textiles with one in three Parisian wage earners making their living within the trade – they defined the fashion seasons that have become the basis of haute couture. Courtiers were to wear fine light-weight French silks for spring and summer and heavier satins and velvets for winter, but woe betide anyone who attempted to wear their summer finery after 1 November. The manufactories were ordered to produce new distinct textile designs each season so there was no opportunity to pass off last year’s velvets as new either!
Read more about the changes to the French textile industries wrought by Louis XIV in Sarah Jane Downing's articles for Selvedge about Alençon lace and Gobelins Tapestry (click on the links to read the full articles) in issue 82 and issue 62.