The skills of fashion: guild conflicts between bonnetières-coiffeuses and merchant mercers over enjolivement in eighteenth-century Rouen

Abstract

This article examines the history of women’s coiffure in eighteenth-century France beyond its visual representations. Focusing on the city of Rouen, it adopts the perspective of the trades involved in the creation of coiffures, and in particular the legal conflicts between the female guild of bonnetières, brodeuses, enjoliveuses and coiffeuses and the merchant mercers over the business of embellishment. Emphasizing the interactions between male and female workers in the fashion trades, the study seeks to identify the impact that the acceleration of fashion innovation had on the practices of fashion workers and the ways in which they conceptualized the skills involved in the production of fashion novelties.