TheIncroyables (French:[ɛ̃kʁwajabl], "incredibles") and their female counterparts, theMerveilleuses (French:[mɛʁvɛjøz], "marvelous women"), were members of a fashionable aristocraticsubculture in Paris during theFrench Directory (1795–1799). Whether ascatharsis or in a need to reconnect with other survivors of theReign of Terror, they greeted the new regime with an outbreak of luxury, decadence, and even silliness. They held hundreds of balls and started fashion trends in clothing andmannerisms that today seem exaggerated, affected, or even effete. They were also mockingly called "incoyable" or "meveilleuse", without the letter R, reflecting their upper class accent in which that letter was lightly pronounced, almost inaudibly. When this period ended, society took a more sober and modest turn.
Members of the ruling classes were also among the movement's leading figures, and the group heavily influenced the politics, clothing, and arts of the period. They emerged from themuscadins, a term for dandyish anti-Jacobin street gangs in Paris from 1793[n 1] who were important politically for some two years; the terms are often used interchangeably, though the muscadins were of a lower social background, being largely middle-class.
Ornate carriages reappeared on the streets of Paris the day after the execution (28 July 1794) ofMaximilien Robespierre, which brought an end to the Jacobin-eraCommittee of Public Safety and signaled the commencement of theThermidorian Reaction. There were masters and servants once more in Paris, and the city erupted in a furor of pleasure-seeking and entertainment. Theaters thrived, and popular music satirized the excesses of the Revolution. One popular song of the period called on the French people to "share my horror" and to send "these drinkers of human blood" back amongst the monsters from which they had sprung. Its lyrics rejoiced that "your tormentors finally grow pale at the tardy dawn of vengeance".[1]
Many public balls werebals des victimes at which young aristocrats who had lost loved ones to theguillotine danced in mourning dress or wore black armbands, greeting one another with violent movements of the head as if in decapitation.[n 2] A ball held at theHôtel Thellusson on therue de Provence in the9th arrondissement of Paris restricted its guest list to the grown children of the guillotined.[2]
The Merveilleuses scandalized Paris with dresses and tunics modeled after the ancient Greeks and Romans, cut of light or even transparent linen and gauze. Sometimes so revealing they were termed "woven air", many gowns displayedcleavage and were too tight to allow pockets. In some caricaturized representations, the gowns were dampened in order to further cling to the figure.[3] To carry even a handkerchief, the ladies had to use small bags known asreticules.[4] They were fond of wigs, often choosing blonde because theParis Commune had banned blonde wigs, but they also wore them in black, blue, and green. Enormous hats, short curls like those on Roman busts, and Greek-style sandals were the rage. The sandals tied above the ankle with crossed ribbons or strings of pearls. Exotic and expensive scents fabricated by perfume houses likeParfums Lubin were worn both for style and as indicators of social station.Thérésa Tallien, known as "Our Lady of Thermidor", wore expensive rings on the toes of her bare feet and gold circlets on her legs.
The Incroyables wore eccentric outfits: large earrings, green jackets, wide trousers, huge neckties, thick glasses, and hats topped by "dog ears", their hair falling on their ears. Theirmusk-based fragrances earned the derogatory nicknamemuscadins for them and their immediate predecessors, a more middle-class group of anti-Jacobins. They worebicorne hats and carried distinctive knobbled bludgeons or canes, which they referred to as their "executive power." Hair was often shoulder-length, sometimes pulled up in the back with a comb to imitate the hairstyles of the condemned. Some sported large monocles. They frequently affected alisp, allegedly to avoid the letter "R" as inrevolution, and sometimes a stooped, hunchbacked posture or slouch, as caricatured in numerous cartoons of the time.[5]
In addition to Madame Tallien, famous Merveilleuses includedMademoiselle Lange,Juliette Récamier, and two very popularCréoles: Fortunée Hamelin andHortense de Beauharnais. Hortense, a daughter of theEmpress Josephine, marriedLouis Bonaparte and became the mother ofNapoleon III. Fortunée was not born rich, but she became famous for hersalons and her string of prominent lovers. Parisian society comparedGermaine de Staël and Mme Raguet toMinerva andJuno and named their garments for Roman deities: gowns were styledFlora orDiana, and tunics were styledà laCeres or Minerva.[6]
The leading Incroyable,Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras, was one of five directors who ran the Republic of France and gave the period its name. He hosted luxurious feasts attended byroyalists, repentantJacobins, ladies, andcourtesans. Since divorce was now legal, sexuality was looser than in the past. However, de Barras' reputation for immorality may have been a factor in his later overthrow, acoup that brought theFrench Consulate to power and paved the way forNapoleon Bonaparte.
The fictionalnouveau riche social climber Madame Angot, awkwardly wearing ridiculous Greek clothing, parodied the Merveilleuses in many plays of the period. Carl Vernet'scaricatures of the wardrobes of the Incroyables and Merveilleuses met with contemporary popular success.[citation needed]
The designerVivienne Westwood was influenced by the incroyables and merveilleuses.[7]
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