The Democracy of Style

By 1910, fashion had democratized remarkably. A shop girl could buy a reasonable facsimile of a Poiret design at Printemps. Mass production techniques improved garment quality while reducing prices. Fashion magazines taught provincial seamstresses to copy Parisian styles. Surface democratization was real.

Yet deeper inequalities persisted. The truly poor wore others' discards, haunting the Marché aux Puces for castoffs. Domestic servants received employers' old clothes as partial wages, marking their dependence. Prison workshops produced cheap clothing in exploitative conditions. Fashion's democracy excluded society's bottom tiers.

The time required for fashionable appearance created another inequality. Wealthy women spent hours on elaborate toilettes, supported by maids who themselves had minutes for basic grooming. The labor of looking fashionable—ironing, mending, cleaning—fell on working women maintaining others' appearances while neglecting their own.

Fashion cycles accelerated, driven by commercial interests. What lasted seasons now changed yearly. This acceleration benefited fashion producers but burdened consumers struggling to maintain respectability. The psychological pressure to appear current intensified as fashion information spread more rapidly.

Despite limitations, Belle Époque fashion democracy had revolutionary implications. The visible markers of class blurred as clothing styles converged. A well-dressed woman on the boulevard might be aristocrat or adventuress. This uncertainty threatened social hierarchies dependent on visible distinction. Fashion democracy undermined the old regime more subtly than political revolution.