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ABSTRACT
The annual fashion cycle of Louis XIV’s court was the starting point of the French domination and economic supremacy in Europe’s textile and fashion sector. This paper examines the specific circumstances under which French fashion captured the Viennese elite market despite the dynastical and political antagonism between the houses Habsburg and Bourbon. It examines the networks of Habsburg diplomats that organized decisive transfers of fashion items. In contrast to dynastically linked courts or political allies such as Munich, London and Stockholm, the Viennese example highlights the planned activities of French diplomats in Vienna as cultural brokers, several diplomatic and practical barriers notwithstanding. It likewise reveals the informal strategies of the French envoy’s wives, household staff and valets in distributing textiles and fashion within the imperial family and the court nobility. It offers an intriguing example of how cultural diplomacy created ways to communicate with the enemy, when the official diplomatic channels were closed off.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
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3. Sewell, “The Empire of Fashion,” 81–120.
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5. Davis, “Habit”; Thépaut-Cabasset, L’Esprit, 22–36.
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7. Thomasius, Deutsche Schriften; Blanning, The Culture of Power, 53–77.
8. Thépaut-Cabasset, “Diplomatische Agenten.”
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11. Fernández-de-Pinedo, “A Taste,” 219–41.
12. The Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678), the War of the Reunions (1683–1684), the Nine Years’ War (1688–1697) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) were all the result of Habsburg-Bourbon antagonism.
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38. Müller, Das kaiserliche Gesandtschaftswesen, 166.
39. ÖStA, HHStA, Staatenabteilungen (hereafter StA) Frankreich, Berichte und Weisungen, 24, fol. 35r: Wicka an Leopold I., 7 September 1667.
40. ÖStA, HHStA, StA Frankreich, Berichte und Weisungen, 23, 24, 25 and 26.
41. Keller, Die Diarien, 187–8.
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44. ÖStA, HHStA, StA Frankreich, Berichte und Weisungen, 24, fol. 209v: Wicka an Leopold I., 5 April 1669.
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46. ÖStA, HHStA, StA Frankreich, Berichte und Weisungen, 24, fol. 3v: Harrach an Leopold I., 15 March 1669.
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48. Richard, “La chambre du roi,” 117–9.
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50. Mansel, Dressed to Rule, 8–9.
51. ÖStA, AVA, Familienarchiv Harrach, 217 and 218: correspondence Bergeret.
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54. El Hage, Le maréchal.
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56. Auer, “Diplomatisches Zeremoniell”; Pons, “Gesandte in Wien”.
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60. Sorel, Recueil.
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63. Backerra, Wien und London.
64. Pribram, Privatbriefe, 363–4.
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66. AMAE, Correspondance politique Autriche, 11CP, 29, fol. 258v: Grémonville to Louis XIV, 15 March 1668.
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70. Karl, “Objects,” 127–9.
71. Keller, Hofdamen, 137.
72. AMAE, Correspondance politique Autriche, 11CP, 50, fol. 250v: Sébeville to Louis XIV, 14 August 1681.
73. AMAE, Correspondance politique Autriche, 11CP, 30, fol. 35r/v: Grémonville to Louis XIV, 10 May 1668.
74. AMAE, Mémoires et documents Autriche, 9 MD/4, Nr. 9: ceremony report for French envoys in Vienna, 1714, fols. 21v–22v.
75. Keller, Hofdamen, 136–41.
76. ÖStA, AVA, Familienarchiv Harrach, 321: Eleonore to Johanna Theresia Harrach, 2 January 1681.
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78. Backerra, Wien und London, 225.
79. Vogüé, Mémoires, 195.
80. Hyden-Hanscho, Reisende, 88, 91–4, 211–2, 296.
81. ÖStA, AVA, Familienarchiv Harrach, 311: Vitry to Ferdinand Bonaventura Harrach, 8 April, 26 November, and 9 December 1682.
82. Hyden-Hanscho, Reisende, 151–2.
83. Only a few passports are documented, see for example ÖStA, HHStA, Reichshofrat, Passbriefe 1/2/61 and 2/2/7.
84. Braun, Hegemonie Frankreichs, 38–47.
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