41: From Prison Garb to Neoclassical Chic: Style and Scandal in the Directory. During the Directory (circa 1795), Teresia (Madame Tallien) and Rose (not yet Josephine) held influential salons, using style to gain success in a world where women lacked fina

The John Batchelor Show

From Prison Garb to Neoclassical Chic: Style and Scandal in the Directory. During the Directory (circa 1795), Teresia (Madame Tallien) and Rose (not yet Josephine) held influential salons, using style to gain success in a world where women lacked financial empowerment. Their revolutionary fashion stemmed from the prison shift Teresia wore and the plain white cotton dresses worn by African American women in Martinique, Rose's home. This style—made often of diaphanous imported muslin—passed as neoclassicism but stunned observers due to the minimal amount of clothing worn. One famous wit observed that Teresia was "more expensively undressed" than anyone else. This radical departure from the previous "cage style" clothing, enforced by sumptuary laws and guilds, was made possible by the abolition of guilds and the collective trauma of the Terror. It was at Teresia's gathering that Napoleon, then a Corsican in shoddy clothes, became entranced by Rose (Josephine).