The Sun King's bedroom at Versailles has a painting of Louis XIV in full regalia that Bruce Boyer used as a metaphor for the passing of an era of dress. Almost literally, as Louis was sitting for his portrait dressed in ermine, silks and jewels, the English nobility were beginning to wear tailored wool clothing.
Today, the English tailored clothing era is fading after a long run, but the careful observer can still see signs of Louis in men's dress around Paris. Consider, for example, this rack of colored jackets on offer at Arnys.
I regret that I was very disappointed in Arnys this trip. The second floor, where they sell their wonderful coats, was closed for the season, and much of the merchandise on display on the main floor looked (there is no other word) cheap. Including the colored jackets. The hand-written mark down signs didn't help this impression at all.
Returning for a moment to Versailles, no-one will ever correctly call the Sun King cheap. It's been calculated that 6% of the national income of France went to run the palace, after an initial investment that would be in the tens of billions today (assuming the necessary craftspeople were available in the first place). And not a single visitor among the thousands that I saw was wearing a suit. Or even a colored jacket.
