When four-year-old Louis XIV ascended the throne in 1643, the center of European fashion was not France, but Madrid, Spain. When Louis XIV grew up in his twenties, he decided to build the luxurious Chateau de Versailles, requiring that all court items must be the best, and found in the purchase that all the best things had to be imported from abroad, and high-end products could not be bought in France.
Therefore, Louis XIV decided to vigorously develop France's domestic manufacturing industry, restrict imports, expand exports, accumulate domestic wealth, so that France can also make high-end luxury goods. This policy gradually developed into the "Mercantilism" of Western Europe, and in less than a decade, it greatly improved the French economy, creating many jobs in the clothing, jewelry, furniture, and wine industries.
In addition to developing the manufacturing industry, Louis XIV also made an amazing invention: the creation of fashion magazines. In 1672, the world's first fashion magazine Le Mercvre Galant was born, describing the French court life through poems, articles and pictures, introducing many luxury goods used by the royal family, and even publishing the first fashion analysis and commentary on men and women's clothing, telling everyone what clothes look good and where to buy such clothes. The magazine, which had never been seen before, quickly became popular throughout France and the European continent, and France received fashion and luxury orders from all over Europe.
French finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert was even more ingenious, in order to efficiently control production capacity, he divided clothing ordering and production into spring, summer, autumn and winter, encouraging people to place orders in advance to order new clothes for the next season. France also gained a lot of profits from this, and established the king position in the field of fashion and luxury goods. At the end of the 17th century, France became the center of European fashion.
Through dynasties, revolutions and wars
Louis XIV died in 1715, but the French fashion industry continued to flourish. When Louis XVI ascended the throne in 1774, his queen, Marie Antoinette, was so keen on make-up that she had her own royal dresser, Rose Bertin. Rose Bertin became the world's first famous fashion designer, and her custom court clothing for Queen Mary was also defined as the prototype of the high-order clothing industry.
After the French Revolution of 1789-1799, in order to rebuild the battered French economy, Napoleon Bonaparte targeted the fashion industry and even ordered everyone to wear different clothes every time they came to the palace. Napoleon's policies brought huge business opportunities and development to the French fashion industry, and even during the Napoleonic Wars of 1803-0815, French fashion products were still widely popular in Europe. At that time, popular clothing used Pandora Fashion Dolls to display, it is said that during the war, the enemy side is fiercely engaged with France, and these exquisite French fashion dolls and French champagne, while quietly smuggled to the enemy front.
The father of crossover fashion & custom
The innovation of the 19th century laid the high luxury status of modern French fashion
In the 19th century, the French fashion and luxury industry flourished for a long time and was highly profitable, attracting many brands to develop their fashion and luxury business. Hermes, founded in 1837, began to sell high-grade harness, and later began to do luxury goods, and launched a special Hermes memorial scarf for the 100th anniversary. That's why you can now see horses and carriages on the Hermes Logo and many of its products. For a time, a large number of luxury brands came out, and the famous Louis Vuitton was also founded in this period.
Charles Frederick Worth, the father of Gauding, founded his own fashion studio in Paris, France, in 1858, named "House of Worth", which opened a new chapter in the modern fashion industry "fashion house". Charles Worth emphasized the creativity and inspiration of clothing, put his name on the fashion works, launched the concept of clothing series for the first time, predicted the fashion trend, held fashion shows, used real models instead of the past fashion dolls, and displayed the real size of clothing.
In 1868, Charles Worth also founded the Le Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne, now a world-renowned design school with a long history. As a result, the French fashion design industry is known for its handmade high-order, and until now, the number of handmade high-order consumers worldwide is only 4,000.
The challenge and revival of French fashion
After France ruled the global fashion industry for 250 years, World War II broke out, in 1940, the German army captured Paris, blocked the entire city, all materials prohibited outflow, fashion information could not be smoothly disseminated, the French fashion industry came to a standstill. During this period, the United States, Italy and the United Kingdom seized the opportunity to seize the share of the world fashion industry and challenge the status of French fashion. After the end of World War II, top French designers such as Christian Dior have launched new works, and France has gradually returned to the world fashion stage.
World War II not only changed the fashion pattern of the world, but also affected the aesthetic and fashion direction of the people, simple and practical, tough fashionable clothing began to enter the lives of the people, crisp tailored suits, shirts and short skirts, comfortable and loose pants are popular, has been popular until today, 80 years later. Paris, New York, London and Milan are also known as the four major global fashion capitals, which together lead the world fashion trend.
