The Fashionable Post-Revolutionary Set
Paris Circa 1796
19th Century hand colored engraving from the group of 24 designs produced by Horace Vernet (1789-1863) entitled "Incroyables et merveilleuses," covering the fashions of the years 1810-1818.
Chapeau en Bateau, Habit Couleur Crotin, Culotte de Peau.
This handsome dandy holding a monocle, wears the exaggerated version of an English jacket adopted by Les Incroyables, and the typical beribboned leggings. He wears a collection of breloques (charms) at his belt.
The Height of Dandyism
After the fall of Robespierre and the end of the Terror, a wave of relief and of fashion giddiness swept Paris.
Young men known as "Incroyables" and their female counterparts "Les Merveilleuses" rejoiced in adopting a wildly exaggerated look which flouted the social conventions of the time. They were the ultimate dandy set, the golden youth of their time, arrogant and outrageous. (See Attributes of an Incroyable, opposite for more on their attire).
Some of the Incroyables, known as Muscadins (because of their heavy musk perfume), had a dark side. They organized into bands and roamed the streets using their bludgeons and canes to harass the revolutionary Jacobins.
More about Les Incroyables et Les Merveilleuses
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