Patriots Against Fashion Clothing and Nationalism in Europe's Age of Revolutions

During the era of the French Revolution, patriots across Europe tried to introduce a national uniform, which all members of the nation would wear in their everyday life. Patriot dreams of overthrowing 'the tyranny of Queen Fashion' emerged from the sumptuary tradition and Enlightenment ideas about social order, but reveal the diversity of national ideologies in the age of Revolutionary nationalism. Uniform schemes reflect the rise of social egalitarianism, as the source of imagined national sovereignty slipped from monarchs to 'the people,' variously understood. since the feminine associations of fashion often trumped masculine national ideas, national uniforms also shed light on ideals of gender. This book, the first comparative study of national uniform schemes, discusses specific examples from Austria, Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Turkey the United States, and Wales.

Alexander Maxwell is a Senior Lecturer at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. He has written Choosing Slovakia (2009), translated Jan Kollár's Reciprocity (2009) and edited The East-West Discourse (2010). He has published on nationalism theory, Habsburg History, and teaching pedagogy.

Introduction: Clothing and Nationalism Studies
1.Fashion as a Social Problem
2.The Tyranny of Queen Fashion
3.The Sumptuary Mentality
4.The Discovery of the Uniform
5.Absolutist National Uniforms
6.Democratic National Uniforms
7.Minimal National Uniforms
8.Folk Costumes as National Uniforms
9.National Fashionism: Queen Fashion as Patriot
10. Haute Couture and National Textiles