In Molière's wardrobe

“Women's clothes are currently almost as full [sic] of frills as that of the new Monsieur de Pourceaugnac is of fringes. I recently saw a black one all covered with white frills, and it seemed from a distance that it was all filled with snow” (1). Feathers, frills, and fringes: Molière's wardrobe gives us a piece of the history of fashion throughout the 17th century. Whether city or stage, the famous playwright's clothes today span the centuries thanks to inventories of his wardrobe and his theatrical works.

By Corinne Thépaut-Cabasset, president of the international ICOM Costume committee

To represent or reconstruct a historical wardrobe from the 17th century is almost impossible as there is a lack of material evidence. Very often, only iconographic documentation (portraits, drawings, and prints) can make visible period clothing, destroyed, not attributed or listed, deteriorated or transformed. A few rare historical garments described as “costumes”, because they are worn on stage, are preserved in the collections of theaters such as the former Royal Theater in Copenhagen or that of Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic.

In search of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin's wardrobe

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin died in Paris, at his home, on February 17, 1673. On Monday, March 13, 1673, his post-death inventory began. This authentic archive item is kept in the central minute book of Paris notaries, at the National Archives of France. This unique document reports, methodically and precisely, the state of the deceased's property at the time of their death, assessing their condition, quantity, and value.

It is in this inventory that we find, dated Tuesday, March 14, 1673, the list of clothes contained in trunks, boxes, and sideboard chests, the very ones constituting Molière's wardrobe on stage (those of its literary characters) and the city.

This document, commented on by literary extracts from Molière's plays and reports on the fashions of the time in LeMercure Galant by Donneau de Visé, provides an overview of French fashion in the first decades of the reign of Louis XIV, of which Paris became the European capital. and the Court of Versailles the nerve center.

Comic reviews

In many cases, the characters in Molière's plays are torn between being either too much or not enough in the fashion of their time. Submitting to the dictates of fashion is a very useful comic spring in comedic situations, and fashion at court has extravagances that are very tempting to make fun of. Being fashionable is a question posed in the psychology of the characters in Molière's theater. If we are to believe what Sganarelle says in L'École des maris, and Monsieur Jourdain in Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, the silk stockings are fragile and too narrow, the shoes hurt the feet or are ridiculous with their tufts of ribbons, hats too small, jackets and doublets too fitted, breeches too wide, the tops of stockings like party favors, the collars and sleeves of shirts, too long and dangling, the clothes, overloaded with decorations, feathers, flushes or fringes, without forgetting the gloves, the wig, the scarf, and the belt. Clothes clutter both the mind and the body.

In the realm of comedy, certain characters do not hesitate to take a stand against this worldly injunction that Sganarelle, in L’École des maris, describes as “stupidity”. He “does not want to change” his clothing or his hairstyle “despite the fashion” and tells the public: “Whoever finds me bad, just close their eyes”.

It is through this discourse that fashion enters the scene in Molière's plays, both burlesque and inscribed in contemporary reality, probably reflecting the human and social concerns of the time, like Sganarelle who declares thus: "It is Is it true that I must be subject to fashion, and it is not for myself that I must dress? »

Theater clothes

Monsieur Jourdain’s dawn and green dressing gown in Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme makes him “a man of quality”. From the first scene, he is dressed in an Indian dress – or dressing gown – “which is the one that one wears at ease and is used while combing one's hair, adjusting oneself or keeping the bedroom", as described by Antoine Furetière in his Universal Dictionary of all French Words, published in The Hague in 1690. The Indian reveals a "little negligee", designating according to Antoine Furetière an interior garment "which we use when we are in our private, when we dress or when we undress.”

Monsieur Jourdain is, therefore, a man in the latest fashion, who “is dressed today like people of quality”.

The complete outfit

In 1690, Furetière, in his dictionary, described a “complete coat” in the article “coat”. According to his definition, “a complete outfit formerly consisted of a doublet, breeches, and coat. […] Now we only wear a coat over the leotard in winter, and the countryside. »

The jerkin, “a kind of jacket that goes to the knees, hugs the body, and shows the waist,” he writes, “was formerly worn only by soldiers.”

Having become fashionable at the end of the 1660s, it entered the wardrobe of the “gallant” man in the 17th century and became a guarantee of elegance. The inventory of trunks lists, for each Molière character, complete sets making up an outfit: coat, breeches (breeches or engrave), doublet, jacket, or jerkin. Orgon's black costume for the performance of Tartuffe (or The Impostor) consists of a "doublet, hose, and black Venetian coat, the coat lined with tabis and trimmed with English lace, the garters and shoe rings and shoes similarly furnished.” That of Arpagon in The Miser is also black satin and includes “coat, hose, and doublet of black satin, trimmed with round black silk lace, hat, wig, shoe, valued at 20 pounds”.

Contemporary clothing is also that, in L'Étourdi, of Mascarille who wears “doublet, breeches, satin coat”; or even that of Sganarelle's wardrobe in The Imaginary Cocu, including "breeches, doublet and coat, collar and shoes, all in crimson red satin, a little dressing gown and poplin cap"... These men are so well dressed in the fashion of the time. Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, with a slightly outrageous extravagance, contrasts with the visual rigor of Orgon's black coat, or that of Arpagon in The Miser.

The sober, somewhat minimalist elegance of Sganarelle in L'École des maris, "consisting of breeches, doublet, coat, purse collar, and belt, all of the musk-colored satin", is enhanced with crimson satin and brocades of different colors. colors for Georges Dandin, or the Confused Husband: “Breeches and coat of musk taffeta, the collar of the same, all trimmed with lace and silver buttons, the belt the same, the little doublet of crimson satin, another doublet of brocade top of different colors and silver lace, strawberry, and shoes. »

Stage costumes

The yellow and green coat and the strawberry around his neck in The Doctor Despite Him are completely outside the canons of fashion and belong to those of the theater; the same goes for Sganarelle's green outfit in The Forced Marriage: a "breeches top and an olive-colored coat lined with green, garnished with false purple and silver buttons and a satin petticoat with aurora flower trimmed similar fake buttons and her belt, priced at 60 livres", for Alceste's colorful outfit in The Misanthrope "consisting of high breeches and gold striped brocade and gray silk jerkin, lined with tabis, trimmed with green ribbon, the gold brocade jacket, silk stockings and garters, valued at 30 pounds'; or even for the golden one from Sganarelle in L’Amour Médecin: “A small satin doublet cut on gold toc, the coat and hose of velvet with a gold background garnished with braid and buttons, priced at 15 pounds. »

Chrysale's costume used for the representation of the Learned Women is composed of a leotard and a black velvet and ramage hose top with an aurora background, a purple and gold gauze jacket, garnished with buttons, a cord of gold, garters, needles, and gloves, valued at 20 pounds. True fashion plates, or interpretation for the stage, all these chosen clothes, by their variety, their color, and their ornaments reinforce the psychology of the character portrayed.

Typical theater costumes include kegs, shirts, petticoats, boxer shorts, thigh-high boots, belts, hats, and aigrettes, as for the role of Clitidas in The Magnificent Lovers; that of Sosie for L’Amphitryon, priced at 60 pounds and that in Le Festin de Pierre; a Spanish outfit for Don Garcia of Navarre, and a Sicilian outfit for L’Amour painter.

John the Baptist's clothes in the city

The wardrobe of literary characters is consistent with that of a person "in the city" including leotards, stockings, jackets, engrave, garters and stockings of silk and wool, and dressing gowns. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin's is simple: five leotards and three stockings of various fabrics, two satin jackets (probably one for winter because it is lined with wadding and one for summer, painted), garters, and six pairs of stockings. (in silk, wool, and tin), and a striped and lined brocade dressing gown. The whole thing is valued at 90 pounds, which is not much more than Monsieur Jourdain's wardrobe on stage.

The difference between city and stage wardrobes is visible in the colors. While in the city, dark, solid tones dominate – ranging from black to musk to gray – on stage, the colors are lighter and brighter, the fabrics striped or patterned. The colors are varied and contrasting, mainly using all tones of red, ranging from pink to crimson and purple, from lemon yellow to the orange color "aurora", blue and various shades of green, colors often enhanced with gold and real or flashy silver, and lace. Monsieur Jourdain's "little undress" in the play Le Bourgeois gentleman with red breeches and a green shirt, and the appearance of a "serious" outfit decorated with flowers whose beauty and brilliance the tailor applauds, contribute also to theatrical dynamics.

The history of fashion is there, exposed in the plays written by Molière, through his lucid, truculent, censorious, or extravagant characters. The open trunks whose material effects were inventoried after his death make up the wardrobe of an illustrious man of his time. Literary testimony to the fashion of the time, it is precious to note that the prints used as frontispieces for the edition of his pieces after his death do not differ much from the fashion engravings published by Le Mercure Galant between 1678 and 1693, and thus offer the panorama and the spirit of fashions in the Grand Siècle.

1• Donneau de Visé, Mercure Galant, 1673.

In the after-death inventory

“A trunk in which there is a suit for the representation of the Bourgeois gentleman, consisting of a taffeta dressing gown with double stripes of aurora and green, a red pan stocking top, a blue pan camisole, a nightcap, and a headdress, breeches and a scarf of painted and Indian canvas, a Turkish jacket and a turban, a saber, breeches of musk-colored brocade trimmed with green and dawn ribbons and two Sedan points, the taffeta doublet trimmed with faux silver lace, the belt, green silk stockings and gloves with a hat trimmed with aurora and green feathers (Molière in the role of Monsieur Jourdain), together valued at 70 livres. " (HAS)

A• Post-death inventory fol. 13 v.

Mr. de Pourceaugnac

“Sbrigani: You look at my outfit which is not made like the others; but I am originally from Naples, at your service, and I wanted to preserve a little both the way of dressing and the sincerity of my country.

Monsieur de Pourceaugnac: That’s very well done: for me, I wanted to put myself in court fashion for the countryside.

Sbrigani: Well, that suits you better than all our courtiers.

Mr. de Pourceaugnac: That’s what my tailor told me; the coat is clean and rich, and he will make a noise here. " (HAS)

A• Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, act I, scene III.

The School for Husbands

“Sganarelle: I must indeed be subject to fashion, / And it is not for myself that I must dress? … / Force me to wear these little hats, / Which let their stupid brains fan out, / And these blond hairs whose vast swelling / Human faces offend the face? / Of these little doublets under the arms getting lost, / And of these large collars down to the dangling navel? / Of these sleeves that we see at the table testing the sauces, / And of these party favors called breeches? / Of these cute shoes covered in ribbons, / Which make you look like patties pigeons / And of these large cannons, whereas if they were fetters, / We put on our two slave legs every morning, / And through which we see these gentlemen the gallants, / Walk wide-eyed like frills? / I would undoubtedly like you equipped like this, / And I see you wearing the stupid things that we wear... » (A)

A• The School of Husbands, act I, scene I, 25-40.

The yellow doublet and the strawberry of the Doctor despite himself

Wednesday before noon, 15th day of March 1673: “A round chest of drawers in which were found the clothes for the performance of The Doctor despite Himself, consisting of doublet, collar, belt, ruff and wool stockings and purse, all in yellow serge, trimmed with green radon, a satin dress with a top of chiseled green velvet. »

Master Tailor

“Here, here is the most beautiful outfit in the court, and the best matched. It is a masterpiece to have invented a serious outfit, which was not black; and I give it in six strokes to the most enlightened tailors. »