Bulman, Julie Catherine. “L'Habit en Révolution: Mode et Vêtements dans la France d'Ancien Régime [Revolution in Style: Dress and Fashion in Pre-Revolutionary France]”, Boston College, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/533.
This thesis addresses the role of dress in the blurring of social class lines in pre-revolutionary France. The Ancien Régime had a set code for costume, in accordance with rank and birth. I outline this particular order, and the resulting disorder from this social structure through factual evidence and literary examples. The second part will discuss the creation and practice of fashion in the 18th century, leading up to the Estates General of 1789. This building significance of appearance in France made dress both a political and social tool that became incredibly useful during the French Revolution.
