Jean Joseph Beaulard, known as Le Sieur Beaulard (died after 1775), was a French fashion merchant and fashion designer.
Jean Joseph Beaulard | |
|---|---|
| Died | after 1775 |
| Other names | Le Sieur Beaulard |
| Occupation(s) | fashion merchant, fashion designer |
| Known for | inventions within hats and headdresses |
He was one of the four top fashion merchants alongside Rose Bertin, Madame Eloffe and Mademoiselle Alexandre during the reign of Louis XVI, and is described as the rival and predecessor of Rose Bertin as the leading fashion designer in France. He was particularly known for his inventions within hats and headdresses. He had clients within the royal court and aristocracy, and was internationally famous at the time. His most known clients were queen Marie Antoinette and Louis XV's mistress, Madame du Barry.
He was the hairdresser of the fashion icon Madame de Matignon,[1] who gave him 24 000 livres (e.g. pounds in silver) a year for styling her hair in a different way every day of the year.[2] [3] The value corresponds in 2014 euros some 1,2 million €.[4]
Considering the enormous amount of money paid, it is not known whether this applied for styling her own hair or her wigs or both. Also it is not known how many employees Beaulard had in his shop. It is known that besides Rose Bertin, Le sieur Beaulard was among the following three top fashion merchants alongside Madame Eloffe and Mademoiselle Alexandre in the 1770s. Beaulard was praised as "a modiste without parallel, the creator and the poet ... because of his myriad inventions and delicious names for fripperies". As the coiffures got very high during the 1770s, Beaulard invented the coiffure à la grand-mére, a mechanical coiffure which could be lowered as much as one foot (30 cm) by touching a spring.[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Weber, Caroline (2007-10-02). Queen of fashion: What Marie-Antoinette Wore to the Revolution, p. 111. Macmillan 2007. ISBN 9781429936477.
- ^ The French Nobility in the Eighteenth Century: From Feudalism to Enlightenment. By Guy Chaussinand-Nogaret, page 58. Cambridge University Press 1985. [1]
- ^ Mémoires sur la cour de Louis XVI et la société française: avant 1789, Volumes 1-2. Mémoirs de la Baronne d'Oberkirch. By Henriette Louise von Waldner Oberkirch (baronne d') 1789, page 192. Meline, Cans et compagnie 1834. [2]
- ^ La Femme des Lumières. Une histoire de la femme au XVIIIe siècle. La vie quotidienne. Salaires et prix des denrées de base au XVIIIe siècle. Web blog [3]Archived 2015-06-19 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Woman of the Eighteenth Century: Her Life, from Birth to Death, Her Love and Her Philosophy in the Worlds of Salon, Shop and Street. By Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt. Page 238. FPublished first in French 1862. Routledge 2013 [4]
- Caroline Weber, Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution
- Carolyn Sargentson, Merchants and luxury markets: the marchands merciers of eighteenth-century Paris, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1996
- Clare Haru Crowston, Credit, Fashion, Sex: Economies of Regard in Old Regime France
- Émile Langlade, Rose Bertin, The Creator Of Fashion At The Court Of Marie-Antoinette, 1913