Liberty Equality Fashion: The Women Who Styled the French Revolution

by Anne Higonnet

The forgotten story of how three women dazzled the world with their radical style and transformed the fashion of the French Revolution. Joséphine Bonaparte, future consort of Napoléon; Térézia Tallien, the most beautiful woman in Europe; and Juliette Récamier, muse of intellectuals, cast off the rigid clothing regime of the past. Overcoming forced marriages and imprisonment during the Terror, they became the first self-made fashion celebrities. From one year to the next, the Three Graces led a rebellion against corsets, petticoats, and enormous skirts. Their flowing garments not only embodied freedom for modern women, but also marked the emergence of global capitalism, shopping culture, and the rise of powerful style influencers.

Joséphine combined the style of Black women from her Caribbean childhood with garments from India and Kashmir to fuse cultures and bend gender rules. Her best friend and style collaborator, Térézia, celebrated the female body and her own erotic independence. Juliette pioneered a radical minimalism, posing for portraits in pure-white, virginal gowns. After the French Revolution, a conservative reaction would keep women “buttoned up” for two centuries, making the fashion-forward story of the Three Graces even more resonant today. 16 pages of full-color illustrations; 2 black-and-white illustrations

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Fashion, France, Fashion History, French Revolution, Biography

304 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2024

Reviews

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at three women who revolutionized women's fashion during the French Revolution, particularly the Directory years of 1794-1799.

I now know a whole lot more about the French Revolution than I ever anticipated knowing—and in the contextualization of just how Joséphine, Térézia and Juliette were inspired by the silhouettes they copied (from France's colonies and colonized peoples, not the Romans or Greeks).

While I felt that it was a little too long and billowy in some places, I appreciated the fashion plates and the absolutely stunning critique of the intersection of women's clothing and women's liberation, and how the backlash against women's clothing of this period has caused some really ridiculous stereotypes (of transparent dresses and women dousing themselves in water to get a good cling).

Anywho, worth the read if you're interested in fashion history, French history, women's history, and art history—and sumptuary laws!

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! If you love fashion, history from the late 1700s French Revolution through the early 1800s Bonaparte years, and in depth research, this book will be your bliss! I was stunned by the quality of the timelines, literal fashion plates, art, research, facts, and the fascinating story behind these three women and their passions for beautiful clothes. The author is a professor at Columbia and brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and research to this topic. Dig in! I am so grateful to Goodreads and the author for this advance reading copy that I will treasure. Having been born on Bastille Day, I'm a bit biased :)

[History Today]

Move over, fraternité: sisterhood rules in this group biography of Juliette Récamier, Térézia Tallien and Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, better known as Joséphine Bonaparte. Today the three friends would be called fashion influencers, or perhaps fashion disruptors. Like Marie-Antoinette, the Austrian-born queen of France, all three were outsiders in their own ways: Joséphine came to Paris from the French colony of Martinique, Térézia from Spain and Juliette from Lyon. All three underwent makeovers at their families’ insistence, adopting the latest Paris fashions in hopes of snagging aristocratic husbands. But each woman eventually became the architect of her own fate (and wardrobe) after the French Revolution left both the fashion industry and the aristocracy in tatters.

Fashion is an alluring and effective historical lens for examining women’s lives, as demonstrated recently by Caroline Weber (Marie-Antoinette), Kate Strasdin (Anne Sykes) and Hilary Davidson (Jane Austen). Fashion has served as a form of communication, creativity and protest at times when more conventional avenues of expression were closed to women. ‘If it had not been perceived as an expression of women’s freedom, it would not have been so virulently opposed’, Higonnet writes. These particular women certainly used fashion as a persuasive method of what we would today call ‘personal branding’ – even if it was motivated by self-preservation more than political conviction – and just as surely suffered opposition.

But while Liberty, Equality, Fashion captures the big picture of its heroines’ unconventional lives and dress in the decade 1794-1804, it stumbles over the details. Higonnet, a professor of art history, credits Joséphine, Juliette and Térézia with inventing fashions they merely popularised. In order to highlight the originality of ‘revolutionary dress’, she dismisses all pre-revolutionary fashion as ugly, uncomfortable, elitist and sexist. In fact, the roots of this sartorial insurgency were evident almost a decade before the Revolution, which accelerated changes already in motion. Early adopters of minimalist fashions à la grecque (such as Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Antoinette Saint-Huberty and Emma Hamilton) and ancien régime clothes designed to accommodate pregnancy, outdoor activities or middle-class budgets are ignored. The innovative artisans who actually made the garments these women ‘styled’ are given scant notice.

Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.

Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell is a fashion historian based in Los Angeles. Her latest book is Skirts: Fashioning Modern Femininity in the 20th Century (St. Martin’s Press, 2022).

[Gail Goodrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author has researched the role of women in the French Revolution by focusing on three pivotal women. The revolution overthrew a court which spent lavishly on clothing made of exotic fibers and detailed handwork such as lace and embroidery. Women's bodies were encased in tight corsets and huge skirts which limited movement. Women of the revolution believed that the proclamation of the rights of man brought more rights for women and this was reflected in a new freedom of dress which embraced light Indian cottons without the restrictions of corsets. Any woman could afford this inexpensive material which meant social class was no longer obvious. The rise of the Napoleonic Empire doomed this experiment in freedom of dress.

[Holly Soltis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Superb. Insightful. It’s hard to describe all the things I felt for this book. Interwoven in this fashion history are import lessons of colonialism, nuanced discussions on various ways women used fashion to defy gender norms, and how quickly Napoleon and other men worked to destroy the work and voice of these women and their revolution. I loved the conclusion that ties it all into todays modern fashion revolutions and how sustainability is the next front

[Micky Byrd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an engaging book; it explained the use of fabric in a way that made sense to the reader without a prior knowledge of textiles. Learning about just how radical revolutionary fashion was, and how short-lived it was, was such fun.

[Fi]

honestly i just really love clothing, so this was very fun for me! learned a lot, thought the repurposing and reimagining of clothing from India and the Americas was super interesting, and just enjoyed a serious look at clothing's political and aesthetic value during the period.

[Marta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprising choice for our book group! It appeared to be a textbook but was so much more: art, history, sociology. The focus on the three women gave the stories an anchor.
I even read the final chapter “How this Book Happened “, which was a revelation. It seems that the long arc of the author’s research resulted in some discoveries that must have benefited her colleagues as well her own book. The GitHub database is a helpful addition.

[Mariga Temple-West · Rating 5 out of 5]

A revolution in fashion for both men and women went hand-in-hand with the reforms of the French revolution in the late 18th century. Women in particular had a new freedom of movement as never before. The female form could now be seen, pregnancy was allowed for, clothes were light and easy to wash. The new use of cotton and muslin broke down class barriers, rich and less rich alike could afford the fabrics, fashion was open to all. Women could finally move and breath. Along with the fashion revolution went a social revolution as women were now full French citizens, were moving into new areas such as the arts, literature, theater, designing new innovative fashions every day.

The disheartening fact is that reforms are not a given. Women experienced this new liberating freedom for only about a decade until Napoleon became emperor and rolled back almost all the reforms. At the same time, the heavy fabrics returned and before long women were back in cages with crinolines and stays.

Three women were pioneers for the new revolutionary look: Josephine Bonaparte, Terezia Tallien, and Juliette Recamier. Josephine in particular drew on the fashions of women of color in her native Martinique, the high-waisted cotton dresses with gauzy over-skirts called goles. Indigenous dress from other countries including India were huge influences on revolutionary European fashion.

This book combines biography, history, and a lot of fashion details. It is illustrated with gorgeous period fashion plates.

[Eustacia Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Head’s up: this review is by someone who really only knows the very bare basics of the French revolution. I’m basically heading into this as a newbie, and this is also why I found the book fascinating.

Liberty, Equality, Fashion traces the path of three women who made an out-sized fashion (and societal) impact during and after the French revolution:

Joséphine de Beauharnais
Thérésa Cabarrus/Madame Tallien
Juliette Récamier

Of the three women, I’ve only heard of Joséphine de Beauharnais before and that’s mostly because she was married to Napoleon, so it was a pleasure to find out more about all three of them. What I’ve learnt is that from Thérésa’s experience during the Terror and from Josephine’s experience growing up in a French colony, the two likely collaborated together to come up with the revolutionary style of dress. And what Juliette did was to innovate it further in her salon.

Revolutionary dress went beyond breaking sumptuary codes. It was a blend of many different cultural influences, all capable of generating outrage, but dressed up in a veneer of classicism that made it acceptable:

“A dress worn without stays or petticoats was sure to be outrageous. A dress modeled on the clothing of people Europeans considered racially inferior was inconceivable. A garment borrowed from men would be illegal. But this was where the rage for classicism covered a multitude of sins. Europeans were so convinced of the natural superiority of their classicism that they were not going to identify the true origins of revolutionary dresses. They would see the Bengali muslin, the humbler indienne cottons, the Antilles gole, the jamdani and chikandari embroidery, the jama cut, the patka location of a waistline, and all they would recognize was their own classicism. The elimination of stays and petticoats would be impossible to ignore, but it would be mitigated by classicism, with just enough outrage left over to attract the attention Térézia and Joséphine hoped for.“

More than that, revolutionary clothes gave a woman freedom. Previous styles of dress were restrictive, literally immobilising noble women. As Higonnet writes: “The wealthier a woman was, the more elaborately her clothing confined her, so any personal power a woman accrued from rank was counteracted by her costume. Revolutionary fashion was resisted not despite its comfort, or despite the mobility it granted women in public. Revolutionary fashion was resisted because of its comfort, and because of the mobility it granted women in public.” Even accessories like handbags and hats were radical because they helped women get out of the home, instead of being purely decorative and keeping them at home.

We also see that fashion and politics have been intertwined for a long time, as seen from the fashion magazine Journal des dames et des modes. According to Higonnet, “Pro-woman, borderline-feminist positions dominated editorial pieces. The fiery women’s rights author Albertine Clément-Hémery, notably, was on the editorial board. On the very first page of the first issue, the Journal announced: “The degree of civilization to which a people has arrived can only be judged by the respect it gives to its women. This thermometer is infallible.””

Like I mentioned at the start, I’m not an expert in the period. I did look up our three main protagonists after reading the book and I found out that:

- The book says Thérésa styled herself Térézia – however, if you search by Térézia you might not get anything online
- The book also takes Juliette’s marriage to her husband as fact, but I did see on Wikipedia that it is disputed

So with all that in mind, and also remembering that history books like to tell stories (my takeaway from Inventing the Renaissance) I’m taking this book as the starting point for the story of fashion and the French revolution, and that it tells us about how we can view the relationship between fashion and feminism in the West. It isn’t the last word on the subject and I will be very interested in reading more books on this topic to continue learning more and broadening my perspective.

This review was first posted at Eustea Reads

[Brenda D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revolution - Women's Rights - and Fashion choices - what could be better! While this is "a deeply scholarly, and impeccably researched book" it is also a page-turner as the back cover promises!

As you can see from my reviews, I love reading fantasy to relax but lets face it ... it is comfort food for the brain. Starting 2025, I made a resolution to mix in something more substantial and this book cover caught my eye at the library. "Liberty Equality Fashion" far exceeded my expectations!

This book focuses on the three fashion mavens who overturned the world of style and replaced binding corsets and limited mobility for women with soft diaphanous cottons, flat shoes and the first handbags. This new French style flew around the world which has only been replicated in our contemporary era through social media.

We have all heard of Josephine Bonaparte but did we know anything about her amazing fashion sense and influence. And the other two women (and all 3 were close friends) were unknown to me - Térézia who became the face of the revolution with her short hair (she was imprisoned and slated for the guillotine) and she was immortalized in a staged portrait of herself in prison dressed in a simple shift holding her shorn locks. p.xvii "No one had ever imagined that a woman could wear so little and look so gorgeous". This became the original "prison inspiration" for the radical new style. And finally, the third women is Juliette Bernard who was to become famous as Madame Récamier immortalized by the painter David draped in the new feminist style these 3 women created drawing on a multitude of historical and world influences.

We experience shopping expeditions with all 3 women in a pre-revolution world - their harrowing survival in the Revolution and post-revolutionary period of The Terror and finally the inspiration they drew from this tumultuous period. Their fashion creations reflected the early genesis of beliefs in equality rights for women as expressed in the need for movement and freedom from the physical and societal strictures of the past.

My final pitch - if you are at all interested in what Jane Austen's heroines wore - then you need to read this book!

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feminism, fashion, and revolutionary France — magnifique ! Higonnet’s concept itself isn’t new — historians have long theorized the connection between shortened skirts and budding feminist politics — but I’ve never seen an English text focused on the French Revolution. The author beautifully demonstrates the long-standing linkages between dress and social hierarchy; masterfully outlines the contours of revolution, Terror, and Empire, well beyond Napoléon; and illustrates how French Revolution destroyed any and all former adherence to past convention. It was brilliant to center the work on Joséphine Bonaparte, Térézia Tallien and Juliette Récamier, women who emerged from the Terror with nothing left to lose and everything to gain by freeing themselves of the literal laces of the past. Little did they know that adopting muslin chemises and turning toward simplicity (a move that Higonnet theorizes was motivated by Térézia and Joséphine’s need to catch the eye of new suitors/sponsors upon release from prison in 1794, which admittedly seems a bit simplistic) would ultimately “level social class, free women, and [halt the exercise of] social authority with naturally precious materials.”

This was a bit of a slower read for me — namely because you can tell Higonnet is a fashion historian, and spends a significant amount of time delving into detail on various pieces of clothing — but its heart is feminist, with a few brilliant bits of political theory included to boot (“Revolutionary fashion was resisted not despite its comfort, nor despite the mobility it granted women in public. Revolutionary fashion was resisted because of its comfort, and because of the mobility it granted women in public.” + “What matters is how clothing expresses the power dynamics among human bodies and how we manage the natural resources that go into our clothing materials…the next frontiers are sexuality, sustainability, and fair trade, which, unlike hemlines or silhouettes, truly defy the entrenched axioms of fashion”). Bravo!

[Lindsay Farassat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The extent to which women's bodies were freed by the Fashion Revolution threatened an entire established social order.

This is a fascinating delve into the politics behind clothing following the French Revolution in 1789. It examines the lives of three women who were famous in that time for their influence on fashion: Juliette Recamier, the picture of innocence; Terezia Tallien, called the most beautiful woman in France; and Josephine Beauharnais, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The way fashion so abruptly changed after the Revolution is really mind-blowing. If you think about portraits done of nobility around 1780 and then look at portraits done around 1795, the difference is night and day, especially for women. Instead of wearing layers upon layers of skirts, as well as stays, suddenly they were all floating around in empire-waisted gowns with no stays and scarcely a single layer between the gown and their skin. This change was brought upon by several factors, a significant one being the Reign of Terror. After the Terror concluded, highborn women who were thrown in prison and later released flaunted their "prison fashion" as a political statement. It became fashionable to suddenly wear your hair quite short - as those destined for the guillotine were required to do - and natural, without the enhancement of wigs or powders. This style echoed Marie Antoinette's chemise a la reine portraits, but things were taken even further.

I'd never taken much time to consider how the voluminous gowns of the late 18th century morphed into the Regency-era gowns of the early 19th that are so iconic and still imitated. This book has been really fascinating to read because it does a great job of putting me in the heads of the people who witnessed the French Revolution in its sartorial aspects. I can understand what it must have felt like as a middle-class woman to suddenly be able to shed pounds of clothing and shapewear and to be able to walk around polite society with nothing but my natural curls. And to witness the death of monarchy and all the social orders it entailed along with that? What a time to have been alive, man.

Let's see how many other books I end up reading about the French Revolution this year.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this hardcover through my library.

Brief Summary: The Events of the French Revolution were violent and overturned a nation, but the terror in the streets was not the only way for which independence was being fought. By examining the lives of three prominent women - Joséphine Bonaparte, Térézia Tallien, and Juliette Récamier - Higonnet brings a fresh perspective from which to view this turbulent period.

Thoughts: I just happened upon this book when I was looking through my library website. I still remember watching the PBS documentary on the French Revolution when I was in middle school and so I picked this book up. I'm so glad that it did because Higonnet provided a female-focused perspective on an important period in history that was dominated by the likes of Robespierre and Napoleon.

Higonnet was able to use primary sources to paint a vivid and holistic picture of the world in which the women central to this book were living. By intermixing each of these women's stories it becomes clear how French culture was far more complex than simple class issues that eventually ripped the country apart.

I can't decide which of the three women was my favourite part of the book. Each of them has such a unique and distinct story that Higonnet was able to paint it in vivid detail. There are various moments where I hated, admired, pitted and sympathized with each of these women.

Higonnet's writing was excellent and accessible. In addition, the illustrations throughout the book help to bring to life a clear picture of Revolutionary France. I would highly recommend this book.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Genocide, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism

[Timothy Grubbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revolutionary style…

Liberty Equality Fashion: The Women Who Styled the French Revolution by Anne Higonnet is a wonderfully researched book about late 18th century fashion trends and the three ladies that influenced them…though they themselves were influenced by the culture of the time…

The book goes into some pretty good detail about French fashion from the mid 18th century and beyond to properly set up the rest of the book.

The narrative quickly establishes that certain fabrics and style have an association with different classes (starting with a decent breakdown of French colonial fashion regarding slaves and those of mixed heritage as it directly related to one of the Three Graces).

The book then follows the 15 years from 1789 to 1804 during the time of the Three Graces, the fashionistas of the pre and post revolutionary world. They considered to Josephine (both pre and post Bonaparte) and two other significant social mavens…

However I won’t go into too much detail on the shifiting social fashions and what they were involved with…because my biggest focus was on the wonderful art, book prints, and other depictions of French Revolution fashion.

The back matter includes a decent index and annotations for the art (thank goodness) for those who wish to do further research.

[Carolyn Deboer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great piece of art history writing through the veil of women’s fashions, primarily in France at the time of the revolution and Napolianic era. I wished I had read it rather than listened to it as I think there were likely diagrams, photos etc that I saw during a presentation prior to reading the book but would have been helpful to see them again.

With sumptuary laws relaxed, guilds vanquished, women could have anyone make a dress for them, or any fabric. Josephine’s history in Martinique and the loose, unstructured dresses so practical in the Antilles became a sign of liberation towards the end of the 1800’s. Fashion relapsed a bit, back to hoop skirts but they were a new and improved hoo9p skirt that didn’t require so much fabric and gave women more freedom. Then in early 1900’s you see women wearing the flapper dresses, unstructured, no corset, shorter lengths and the rest is history.

The book follows the inclinations of three women, all friends from different backgrounds and how they purposefully change the face of fashion not just in Paris but everywhere and forever.

[LillyBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a wonderful non-fiction work about the profound transformation in women’s fashion that occurred after the French Revolution. Not only does it explain the clothes from a dressmaker's point of view (including many illustrations), but it also discusses the social changes that allowed such new silhouettes and fashion freedoms to spread. But because I was enjoying it so much, I was disappointed with where the author chose to end the book: right when Napoleon crowned himself emperor. I felt it was wrapped up too quickly, with a short paragraph about how fashion changed again, but there were no illustrations or descriptions of that change. I am not a fashion expert, but it seems to me that the fashions of the next twenty years or so are very similar; I would have appreciated an explanation of what was so different.

[Jezebel Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful read. This book detailed the impacts of the French political climate on the intricacies of fashion during the revolution and empire, championed by three women with distinct personalities. The last sentence of the book will sit with me forever. If you have any interest in politics, feminism, fashion, or history, then this book will fill your cup.

I will say that it has been some time since I refreshed my knowledge on the French Revolution so at times I did not understand some references to people and events, but this book catapulted me into making the French Revolution my current hyperfixation, so I read up on some history while I went through this book. If you aren’t caught up on the history of the revolution, this book can get a bit dizzying as it sometimes jumps back and forth throughout the different periods of the revolution. But don’t let that deter you!

[Micebyliz]

A study of human behavior as much as a history of clothing. What to wear for a revolution might come in handy! good running shoes for sure, although whatever the French were wearing certainly did not qualify :) and those corset/torture stays! how dreadful. How were you supposed to breathe? No wonder women were always fainting. I'd like to see a man all trussed up and see if he could breathe, let alone think.
How the changes came about was fascinating. Descriptions of salons always amuse me. They seem so quaint compared to what is going on these days.
Also glad that slavery and wars were brought in for context and clarity because so much of the background to society at that time depended on them. Imagine lounging around in your cotton chemise on your divan? and knowing that slavery provided your clothing. would you still be able to wear it? how sickening.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exquisite primary sources (the fashion plates! the Gérard portraits!) and research. So well-written and easy to read. I found the evidence presented to be fascinating; I almost wish it had been a longer book with even more detail. The idea that the post-Terror clothes were not neoclassical but actually influenced by colonial “properties” was a revelation. It is a theory that is much more aligned with the way fashion tends to work nowadays; it’s so rare to borrow wholesale from history, much more common to seize upon and co-opt little-known contemporary ideas.

As much as I would buy an expanded version of this book, I would also happily buy a coffee table version with enlarged illustrations. I would have loved to see more close-up illustrations of the textiles themselves. This book left me with lots of new obsessions to explore.

[Suzy Epstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book very much. It demonstrates with marvelous illustrations that the French Revolution caused a revolution both in politics and in fashion. At the same time that the French people demanded freedom from the oppressive laws and high taxes imposed upon them by the aristocracy, French women were demanding freedom from the tight corsets, heavy materials , long sweeping skirts and heavy wigs imposed upon them by the aristocracy. From 1797 until 1804, upper class women began to wear delicate dresses made of light muslin fabrics that looked more like night gowns than ball gowns. They no longer wore heavy restraining undergarments. Instead they wore simple light weight cotton slips underneath their elegant muslin dresses.

[Rebecca Puckett · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute delight from start to finish. I devoured it like a fiction book. The intersection of colonialism and the availability and cost of luxury fabrics and the shift and expansion of the classes was engagingly discussed. State politics, gender politics, economy, art, this book has it all.

The parallels to our current billionaires vs. the rest of us unabe to afford groceries situation had me demanding la guillotine at every turn. I know history repeats itself if it is not learned from but my goodness, reading this really felt like we're living in a beat for beat remake. Right down to a quote from Napoleon "Women are everywhere: at the theater, in public parks, in libraries" which deserves a whiny toddleresque meme.

[Sharlan Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time I saw a Jane Austin movie I wondered, "Why are their dresses so minimal? How did women's clothing go from the early 18th century -- corsets, layers, weight -- to these columnar, Grecian, revealing, high-waisted frocks?"

Enter the French revolution of the 1790s and three stylish, free-spirited, revolutionary women who completely rewrote the dress code across Europe and the new world for a period of about 20 years. Then Queen Victoria comes along and boom, we are back to corsets, layers, etc.

Others have said that this book reads like a work of fiction. Great pacing, sexual liberation, radical changes in the economy, especially the world of fashion.

[Daye Pope · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy through a friend. I expected to like it, but I didn't expect to devour it in 3 days and be unable to put it down! How could a book on history end up being so DISHY? There's so much here about the connections between how clothing operates as a carrier of ideology, nascent French feminism, and how things like politics, colonialism, and media affect how we adorn ourselves.

Some narrative threads could be expanded on that left me wanting more-but overall, so fun, so fascinating, and I learned a lot.

[Christine Hopkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 love looking at the French Revolution through this lens stars

As a fashion historian, I often look for the link between historical changes and the fashion that accompanies that change. Higonnet’s prospective on the French Revolution through these three fascinating, fashionable and intelligent women is incredibly readable and informative. A must read for anyone interested in fashion history and the French Revolution!

[Ann Otto · Rating 2 out of 5]

Those interested in fashion and short bios of interesting women during the pre-and-post Napoleonic era will love this book. Higonnet is to be commended for the significant research on the topic. I read for history and although I learned some interesting facts, the book couldn't keep my interest given the minutia about the women involved.

[Oona Lundgren-Lahav · Rating 4 out of 5]

During COVID I worked briefly as Prof Higonnet’s research assistant, so I was very excited to read this book! Liberty is a captivating and relevant story of fashion and feminism, shockingly pertinent to questions of style influence and ownership today. Also lots of sex scandal. Very fun read, and has pictures!

[BookBrowse · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book won't explain all the workings of the French Revolution or Napoleon's rise to power, but it will make you look differently at an empire-waist dress.
-Rose Rankin

Read the full review at: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/review...

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been noticing a shift in tone in nonfiction books in the past few years, where everything reads more like a long-form magazine article. I assume it's meant to combat the constant criticism that nonfiction is 'too dry' 'like a textbook'. But I don't like it. This has that quality, which I am learning works better if you read each chapter as a separate idea as opposed to flowing through the whole book.

Anyway, none of the information Higonnet presents is really new if you've read much about the time period, but having it collected in one book is convenient. There are a good number of pictures and fashion plates, but I would have liked to see them integrated more with the text.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Engagingly written, this book lended valuable insight into the political and social climate that led to the revolution of Regency fashion, focusing on how influential women shaped that revolutionary shift in the style of dressing.