Although the merchant did none of the practical work himself, he acted as a mediator between customer and maker — negotiating the costs of labor and materials, and arriving at a final price for an individual embroidered design. Generally such lavish items were purchased on credit, as most of the merchant's trade operated on a "take now, pay later" basis. Perhaps this explains why, as the author of The Art of the Embroiderer noted in 1770, customers were not deterred by embroidered fabrics for men's suits that cost much as six hundred francs per aune (approximately 1.2 meters, or 1.3 yards).
The merchant would not be responsible for assembling the embroidered pieces into a garment — that was the job of the tailor — but as can be seen from the uncut waistcoat and suit panels on view in the exhibition, panels of silk or wool would be embroidered to reflect the shape of the finished garment. The small embroidered circles seen along the right edge of the panel at left would have formed buttons, the embroidered strip at the left would have decorated the jacket's back vent, and the main embroidery would have formed the front left of the jacket, complete with an elaborate pocket flap.
The late eighteenth and early nineteenth century witnessed a general trend toward greater simplicity in French men's fashion, inspired by unadorned English country dressing. However, waistcoats remained an acceptable outlet for elaborate embroidery, and the new austerity did not preclude the sumptuous decoration seen on court suits of the early nineteenth century. Although the base fabric of the coat below, from 1809, is wool broadcloth rather than silk velvet, its heavy gold embroidery with paillettes and braid bears a remarkable similarity to one of the larger embroidery samples now on view. In fact the often subtle variations on certain motifs seen in the samples on display demonstrate that male consumers of fashion generally adhered to established decorative themes, customizing them through their choice of fabric, color, scale, and trimmings.
Embroidery sample for a man's suit, 1800–1815. French. Silk embroidery on silk velvet; L. 13 1/4 x W. 11 1/8 in. (33.7 x 28.3 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of The United Piece Dye Works, 1936 (36.90.15)
The installation features a copy of L'Art du Brodeur (The Art of the Embroiderer), which was published in Paris in 1770. This book contains detailed descriptions about subjects such as preparing fabric to be embroidered and the variety of threads used in a workshop, as well as illustrations of designs for men's suits.
Seen together, the fabrics and the book provide a glimpse into the world of vividly colored and highly decorative fashion that was a key component of an upper-class European man's life in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Additional Reading
Saint-Aubin, Charles German de. Art of the Embroiderer, translated and edited by Nikki Scheuer. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1983 [1770].
Little, Frances. "The Besselièvre Collection of Textiles." In The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 31, no. 10 (October 1936): 204–6.
Sargentson, Carolyn. Merchants and Luxury Markets: The Marchands Merciers of Eighteenth-Century Paris. London and Malibu: Victoria and Albert Museum in association with the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996.
Kisluk-Grosheide, Daniëlle, and Jeffrey Munger. The Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010.
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