Embroidered Hierarchies: French Civil Uniforms and the décret du 29 messidor in Napoleonic Paris and Milan

Abstract

In the days following Napoleon Bonaparte's nomination as Emperor of the French in May 1804, two decrees were introduced to French society: the décret du 24 messidor an XII and the décret du 29 messidor an XII. The first organized the French court into a hierarchy of privilege, placing Napoleon and his closest friends and advisors at the top of a complex pyramid of social capital. The second decree reoriented the court away from the sartorial egalitarianism of the French Revolution by legislating court costumes of varying colours and embroidery designs to correspond with each newly created governmental and courtly rank. Many histories of this period connect Napoleon's court costumes to his desire to strengthen the French silk industry, but less is understood about how Napoleon used these court costumes at his courts outside of France as organizational and imperialistic tools of social control. This article will consider how the décret du 24 messidor and the décret du 29 messidor were implemented in Paris and in the Kingdom of Italy in Milan in 1805, revealing that even as Napoleon's government attempted to structure French courtly society through codes of sartorial display, personal expression for men was still possible, especially through embroidery.