Beau Brummell wearing a subdued color palette of white, black, navy blue, and buff
Luis Francisco de la Cerda in a lavish red justacorps, c. 1684.

The Great Male Renunciation (French: Grande Renonciation masculine) is the historical phenomenon at the end of the 18th century in which wealthy Western men stopped using bright colours, elaborate shapes and variety in their dress, which were left to women’s clothing. Instead, men concentrated on minute differences of cut, and the quality of the plain cloth.[1]

Coined by the Anglo-German psychologist John Flügel in 1930, it is considered a major turning point in the history of clothing in which the men relinquished their claim to adornment and beauty.[2] Flügel asserted that men “abandoned their claim to be considered beautiful” and “henceforth aimed at being only useful”.[3] The Great Renunciation encouraged the establishment of the suit’s monopoly on male dress codes at the beginning of the 19th century.

History

The Great Male Renunciation began in the mid-18th century, inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment; clothing that signaled aristocratic status fell out of style in favor of functional, utilitarian garments. The newfound practicality of men’s clothing also coincided with the articulation of the idea that men were rational and that women were frivolous and emotional.[2]

During the French Revolution, wearing dress associated with the royalist Ancien Régime made the wearer a target for the Jacobins. Working-class men of the era, many of whom were Revolutionaries, came to be known as sans-culottes because they could not afford silk breeches and wore less expensive pantaloons instead.[4] The term was first used as an insult by French officer Jean-Bernard Gauthier de Murnan but was reclaimed by these men around the time of the Demonstration of 20 June 1792.

In the United States, the movement was associated with American republicanism, with Benjamin Franklin giving up his wig during the American Revolution, and later the Gold Spoon Oration of 1840 denouncing Martin Van Buren.[5]

The post-Renunciation standards for men’s dress went largely unchallenged in the Western world before the rise of the counterculture and increased informality in the 1960s.[6]

Characteristics

Dark-coloured or black clothing became the standard for men’s apparel during the Renunciation.[7] High heels, adopted in Europe at the beginning of the 17th century based on Persian riding shoes, fell out of fashion for men by the 1740s.[2] The tight-fitting breeches that suggested better tailoring and accentuated the strength of the male figure, particularly the legs, were replaced by pantaloons.[8] Stockings and expensive wigs and fabrics were also abandoned.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bourke, Joanna (1 January 1996). "The Great Male Renunciation: Men's Dress Reform in Inter-war Britain". Journal of Design History. 9 (1): 23–33. doi:10.1093/jdh/9.1.23.
  2. 1 2 3 Kremer, William (25 January 2013). "Why did men stop wearing high heels?". BBC News. Retrieved 27 June 2023.
  3. ↑ Quoted by Bourke, p. 23
  4. 1 2 Wright, Jennifer (11 January 2019). "Serious Q: Why Did Men Stop Wearing Capes?". Repeller. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  5. ↑ Peiss, Kathy (29 November 2011). Hope in a Jar: The Making of America's Beauty Culture. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0812205749.
  6. ↑ "Bravehearts: Men in Skirts". Met Museum. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  7. ↑ Edwards, Nina (4 January 2019). "Dark Fashion". The Paris Review. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  8. ↑ Harvey, Karen (2015). "Men of parts: masculine embodiment and the male leg in eighteenth-century England" (PDF). Journal of British Studies. 54 (4): 797–821. doi:10.1017/jbr.2015.117. S2CID 146474963. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
  9. ↑ Storey, Nicholas (2008). History of Men's Fashion: What the Well-dressed Man is Wearing. Barnsley: Remember When. ISBN 978-1-78303-600-4. OCLC 854671804.
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