Object: Man's suit
Date: c. 1790-1800
Medium: Green silk velvet, ivory silk, and metallic thread
Country: France or England
Credit Line: Museum purchase
Object number: 2010.98.1
Descriptionman's three piece suit: cutaway tailcoat with high collar and border of buttons and matching breeches in green voided uncut silk velvet in a fine diamond pattern; coordinating waistcoat in ivory silk with embroidered neoclassical design in silver metal wrapped thread dots overall and overlapping crescents along edges of collar, CF, hem, and pockets
Label Text:Colorful and decorative garments, like this man's three-piece suit, were considered perfectly “masculine” until the late 18th century, when men began to adopt darker and more sober styles. The reasons for “the great masculine renunciation” are complex, owing much to the rise of the capitalist bourgeoisie and the spread of democracy. But this paradigm shift in male fashion was almost certainly also influenced by the appearance of “fops” and “macaronis” of all social classes, whose sexual ambiguity de-legitimated colorful and decorative aristocratic menswear.
In Collection(s)
Exhibitions:
- A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk
- Minimalism / Maximalism: Fashion Extremes