Dressed to Rule: Royal and Court Costume from Louis XIV to Elizabeth II [Hardcover]

Philip Mansel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 11, 2005

Throughout history rulers have used clothes as a form of legitimization and propaganda. While palaces, pictures, and jewels might reflect the choice of a monarch’s predecessors or advisers, clothes reflected the preferences of the monarch himself. Being both personal and visible, the right costume at the right time could transform and define a monarch’s reputation. Many royal leaders have known this, from Louis XIV to Catherine the Great and from Napoleon I to Princess Diana.
This intriguing book explores how rulers have sought to control their image through their appearance. Mansel shows how individual styles of dress throw light on the personalities of particular monarchs, on their court system, and on their ambitions. The book looks also at the economics of the costume industry, at patronage, at the etiquette involved in mourning dress, and at the act of dressing itself. Fascinating glimpses into the lives of European monarchs and contemporary potentates reveal the intimate connection between power and the way it is packaged.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this study of official fashion from 1660 onward, Mansel (Prince of Europe: The Life of Charles Joseph de Ligne) elaborates on the saying "clothes make the man" to show that, for centuries, clothes have also made the government. Though it begins with a description of the notorious splendor of Louis XIV's court, this is not really a book about fancy frocks and jewels; instead, Mansel emphasizes the widespread adoption (and imposition) of uniforms, which rulers from England to China have used to demonstrate status and control their subjects. Occasionally, these focal points lead the book off track, as Mansel spends much time describing non-rulers' clothing, but, overall, his tactic makes for a more subtle argument about the rulers' actual influence. He gives excellent consideration throughout to the economic impact of government-dictated style, especially in the areas of military and mourning dress. Though he devotes a number of pages to Turkey, he pays fleeting attention to other regimes outside western Europe. Casual readers may enjoy the intriguing tidbits about emperors as fashion designers or the important role of the royal dresser, but those looking for a general survey will be frustrated by the haphazard structure and the superficial attention given to many periods and places.
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Book Description

Many royal leaders, both past and present, have understood the intimate connection between power and the way it is packaged. This intriguing book explores how European royals, including Louis XIV, Napoleon I, and Princess Diana, have carefully controlled their styles of dress and how the right costume, at the right time, can transform and define a monarch’s reputation.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press; First Edition edition (July 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300106971
• ISBN-13: 978-0300106978
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,392,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Scattered, not that inspiring, more's the pity., February 16, 2007

By 

Rebecca Huston "telynor" (On the Banks of the Hudson) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dressed to Rule: Royal and Court Costume from Louis XIV to Elizabeth II (Hardcover)

Call me a costume junkie. While I am certainly not a fashionista, I do love to look at clothing, and especially that of the past and how it played such an important role in the past. Fashion has been used to determine status, flaunt power and general dazzle the lower classes -- even in our modern world with its guise of equality still hankers after snob appeal when it comes to clothing.

Philip Mansel's book, Dressed to Rule: Royal and Court Costume from Louis XIV to Elizabeth II takes a sweeping look at how clothing was used by monarchs to determine who was in, and who was out. In, of course, meant that you had access to the monarch, a neccesity for those who wanted to have power -- and out, was just that -- outside of court culture and power.

Introduction: the Power of Clothes

A very brief essay on how clothing served as both a message of style and education but also of power.

Splendour

In the past, clothing at a royal court was a clear signal of who you were, and more importantly, how much money and wealth did you have. This chapter was fairly interesting, especially as it showed the links between native industry -- in France it was the silk industry in Lyon -- and a court that was voracious in needing a constant supply of fine fabrics, and how changing tastes in clothing could enhance or ruin the national economy.

Identity

Here the emphasis is more on where are you from than anything else. It starts with George IV of England -- otherwise known as the Prince Regent -- and how he made the Scottish kilt and tartan so popular. Then in an about face, the author abruptly switches to national dress in Poland, and how it tried to succeed in the face of upcoming division by its neighboring, stronger empires around it. Interesting, but confusing.

Service

Namely, this chapter goes into uniforms, and how in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century the wearing of military clothing for royalty -- both men and women -- helped to establish authority.

Revolutions

You can't really mention royal fashion and not talk about Marie Antoinette, who has come down through history as a spendthrift nitwit. What I did find interesting about this was that the revolutionaries with their adoption of a more simplistic dress that sought to equalise everyone did more to distress the economy -- with no one to buy luxury goods, entire cities and regions sank into economic ruin.

The Age of Gold

The French textile industry improved once Napoleon staged his coup and declared himself emperor. This time the point was to appease vanity and spectacle with the lavish use of gold embroidery, which depending on your point of view, could be splendid, or hopelessly parvenu.

Empires

Prussia, England, Russia and Austria during the nineteenth and early twentieth century get mention here, but where it gets really interesting is when it starts talking about the mideastern kingdoms of Iran and Afghanistan, with a mention of Osama bin Laden towards the end.

While I certainly enjoyed reading about the topic of the historical role of clothing, I had a hard time actually following Mansel's style of writing; it's clunky at best, chopping up ideas and trying to serve them neatly, but he leaps about from subject to subject with little continuity to really link it all together. He also pitches in foreign phrases and terms, assuming that his reader can read French right off the bat, and so doesn't bother to provide a translation. That's annoying. Within each chapter he leaps about wildly from place to place, shifting time as well; but when the next chapter opens, he'll start off back a century or two. That makes cohesion very difficult to follow.

I would be hesitant to recommend this book. I found it to be difficult reading without any real theme or new ideas to keep it all pulled together. Sure, it's packed with plenty of little snippets and details -- why red heels on shoes were so important in monarchial France, to give an example -- but unless the reader is involved in historical writing or costume design, it's not much more than a curiosity.

Which is a pity. The book is filled with photos and black and white illustrations, along with an insert of colour photographs. The notes, bibliography and index are extensive, and give plenty of ideas for further research. To sum up, it gets a three star rating for the general reader, and maybe a four for those who are particularly interested in this topic.

Somewhat recommended.