From the rigorous codes of the First Empire, the sobriety of the Third Republic and the bourgeois luxury of the July Monarchy to the splendour of the Second Empire, linen went through its own industrial revolution. This revolution brought about the democratisation of linen, as well as technical and aesthetic changes.
After the French Revolution, the light dress fashion of the late 18th century continued, notably under the influence of the "Les Incroyables et les Merveilleuses" (the Incredible Ones and the Marvellous Ones), a group of young people who decided to push elegance and extravagance to the extreme, after the troubles of the last decade. In Parisian salons, they could be seen walking around, dressed in antique-style gowns in immaculate, almost transparent white linen.
However, with the return of order under the Consulate (1795-1799) and Napoleon Bonaparte's First Empire (1804-1814), morality and modesty also returned to the fore.
The corset made a comeback, as did the linen shirt, which returned to its original role of protecting the body and, above all, covering it. However, the shape of the shirt evolved, with a square neckline and short sleeves, and became less extravagant than under the Old Regime.
The use of linen continued throughout the 19th century, and was even used to make the oversized petticoats worn between 1830-1840. This was also true under the Second Empire (1852-1870), with the creation of crinoline: a lightweight “cage” skirt, made of wicker or steel, covered with a fine fabric made of horsehair (crin de cheval) and linen - the two materials that gave it its name.
But the 19th century also saw the advent of the Industrial Revolution, which led to major transformations in the production of linen. Mechanical looms and new spinning techniques increased production and reduced costs. This made linen more accessible to a larger proportion of the population. Woven linen was therefore used for a wide variety of garments.
Industrialisation also led to the development of new, less expensive bleaching techniques, and the creation of linen fabrics with blends of other fibres. This resulted in new textures and properties.
In men's clothing, linen was adopted by all social classes. The working-class population that developed during the 19th century, like farmers and field workers, chose to wear linen on a daily basis because it was hard-wearing and comfortable. In this case, the linen was often dyed, especially in blue (hence the term “blue collar”), and was used to make shirts, pants and even underwear.
At the same time, the clothing worn by male members of the aristocratic and bourgeois high society tended to be increasingly sober, culminating in the adoption of the English "tailored" suit, composed of a fitted jacket, pants and a white shirt. The more immaculately white the shirt, the higher the social status.
Linen faced increasing competition from other materials, notably cotton, which was easier and cheaper to produce. This was notably true in the case of shirts. Originally made from linen, with a wide T-shape and a hole for the head, shirts became more sophisticated over the decades, with refined buttons and buttonholes, and starched collars and dickies (shirt fronts). Linen's suppleness and tendency to wrinkle became disadvantages, and the use of cotton gradually started to gain ground.
Equally, jackets were now often made from wool or silk. At this time, thanks to its qualities of resistance, softness and suppleness, linen became used in a different way, as an underlayer: as a lining to protect the body from rubbing, or as interlining to ensure that the garment stayed in shape.
From a fashion point of view, linen was still the leading material for luxury, for lighter summer suits and for sports and leisure wear, which were becoming increasingly popular among high society in the second half of the 19th century.
As for lace, it disappeared completely from men's wardrobes when Napoleon 1 came to power, since he decreed it should be exclusively used by women. Nevertheless, the mechanisation and industrialisation of the sector made it possible to produce larger quantities of materials in less time, and with a smaller workforce. By reproducing lacemakers' gestures on machines, thanks to specially adapted looms, the French lacemaking industry reached its height at the end of the 19th century and the turn of the 20th century.
As for lace, it disappeared completely from men's wardrobes when Napoleon 1 came to power, since he decreed it should be exclusively used by women. Nevertheless, the mechanisation and industrialisation of the sector made it possible to produce larger quantities of materials in less time, and with a smaller workforce. By reproducing lacemakers' gestures on machines, thanks to specially adapted looms, the French lacemaking industry reached its height at the end of the 19th century and the turn of the 20th century.
Although cotton was gradually incorporated into this lace fabric, from a stylistic point of view, linen was still prevalent. Cream-colored lace was in fashion. It did not matter what the material was, as long as the result looked old, yellowed, aged or like "linen." People did not hesitate to chemically dye cotton or wool to imitate the unbleached thread of linen, which remained the aesthetic benchmark for lace.
Although the industrial era made linen accessible to the wider population, the 20th century would be a challenging time for this age-old fibre, which faced growing competition from new synthetic materials and a revolution in consumer habits.
The 20th century: from Synthetic Fabrics to the Linen Revival
Flax-Linen, the fibre of civilisation(s): the event book that unveils the history of a thousand-year-old textile
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