Did you think macabre style only started in your lifetime? Citizens of post-revolutionary France could teach us all a thing or two. Following the executions of French Aristocracy and then the Reign of Terror, the bourgeois population worked out their issues in style, fashion and dining.
In an anti-powdered wig style, men and women cut their hair short and bared their necks to acknowledge the effects of the guillotine. Red ribbons tied around the throat became a popular accessory as did mourning arm bands in every day fashion. Jewelry was made in guillotine shapes and other morbid motifs.
Victim's Balls became the new nightlife, allegedly for those who were mourning headless friends and family. Dark colored ensembles could also be scandalously brief, where looks may include only the ribbons themselves. Gourmand Grimod de la Reynière (one of the first popular food critics) held mock funeral banquets serving multiple courses of black colored dishes on top of a coffin.
Victim's Balls became the new nightlife, allegedly for those who were mourning headless friends and family. Dark colored ensembles could also be scandalously brief, where looks may include only the ribbons themselves. Gourmand Grimod de la Reynière (one of the first popular food critics) held mock funeral banquets serving multiple courses of black colored dishes on top of a coffin.
Vive la France!