Department Stores: Fashion for All

While couture houses dressed the elite, department stores democratized style. Au Bon Marché, Printemps, and Galeries Lafayette didn't just sell clothes—they sold dreams of transformation. Their massive fashion departments, copying couture designs at affordable prices, let shop girls dress like countesses, at least superficially.

The stores' fashion shows became social events. Models—a new profession offering respectable employment to attractive young women—displayed the latest styles before audiences mixing all classes. A duchess might sit beside a secretary, both studying hemlines and sleeve shapes. Fashion magazines distributed with purchases spread Parisian style nationwide.

Ready-to-wear clothing, improving in quality and fit, challenged traditional dressmaking. The sewing machine's proliferation enabled mass production of garments previously hand-sewn. Standardized sizing, though primitive, made mail-order fashion possible. Provincial women could order Parisian styles from catalogs, receiving approximations of boulevard elegance.

Yet this democratization had limits. The cheapest clothing remained shoddy, falling apart after minimal wear. Working women spent disproportionate income percentages on clothes necessary for respectability. The appearance of equality—everyone wearing similar styles—masked persistent quality differences marking class distinctions.

The stores employed thousands of young women as vendeuses, modistes, and seamstresses. These workers, dressed in black to highlight merchandise, navigated between serving wealthy clients and maintaining their own respectability. Many supplemented meager wages through relationships with male customers, blurring boundaries between retail and prostitution.