Incroyables et Merveilleuses, 1814, Merveilleuse, No. 22 (bis): Chapeau de paill (...). 1814

Curator: Before us, we have a drawing titled "Incroyables et Merveilleuses, 1814, Merveilleuse, No. 22 (bis): Chapeau de paill (...)," dating from 1814 by Georges Jacques Gatine, created using pen on paper. Editor: It’s startling how demure yet otherworldly the figure appears; that giant feather atop her head is arresting and somewhat dampens the neoclacissism; a somewhat ghostly figure with exaggerated sleeves floating over the faint wash landscape. Curator: Indeed. These images played a pivotal role as markers of shifting gender roles in French society. "Merveilleuses" was the name given to women who represented extravagance, and this piece captures that spirit of radical fashion amidst political transition. This "straw hat," the two tiered dress –it spoke volumes. Editor: Tell me more about those radical fashions? Were they meant to democratize access to style, material-wise? Those gathered sleeves, while appearing opulent, read rather simple in production. A light linen, perhaps easily replicated at home? Curator: Exactly. In post-revolutionary France, fashion served as a crucial form of expression. Neoclassical aesthetics allowed a kind of fantasical reinterpretation of antiquity, expressing modernity and, crucially, individual identity, the woman as citizen, using codes everyone understood in its own way. Editor: And what about the materials? Paper and pen, an accessible method for dissemination of fashion trends. Curator: Precisely. This drawing represents the industrial and social shifts of the time: here, simple inexpensive materials reproduce fashionable tropes and signal their wider circulation; this image speaks of a proto-capitalist world where "personal" fashion trends trickle from the center to the masses through accessible media and readily reproducible dress codes. Editor: Seeing this as a fashion plate alters the read completely— Suddenly it is less about this individual woman and more about accessibility to style. Curator: Absolutely, that is where the symbolic power resides! This Gatine’s Merveilleuse now opens a world of material history, feminine subjectivity, and radical shifts in social symbolism! Editor: Definitely. Seeing this piece with an eye to production methods really makes one rethink ideas around access, style, and expression through dress.