In the geography of fashion, Paris was the center of the universe. But even within the "kingdom of fashion," there was an inner city (comparable to the Forbidden City within old Peking) .from within which issued "the decrees of the sovereign." According to Uzanne,

This area is the quarter of the city lying between the Rue de Rivoli on the south, the Chausee d'Antin on the north, the Rue Taitbout on the east, and the Rue Royale on the west. . . . The Rue de Ia Paix, connecting the brilliant quarter of the Opera with the old royal promenade of the Tuileries by the Rue Castiglione, may be called the center of [the fashion] industries.1

Here, on the rue de la Paix, the rue Royale, and the area around the place Vendome, were the smartest and most expensive fashions, perfumes, silks, jewels, furs, hats, and lingerie. Downtown Paris was already a center of commerce by the early nine­ teenth century. Under the Second Empire, the economic power of the bourgeoisie was even more evident in the additional factories and work­ shops, commercial establishments and financial corporations that changed the face of the city. Hitherto virtually islands unto themselves, the various Parisian neighborhoods increasingly became subsumed into a citywide net­ work of production, consumption, and the pursuit of pleasure.

In the first half of'the nineteenth century, the working class made up some 75 to 80 percent of the total population, the bourgeoisie only about 15 percent. But while there were some working-class neighborhoods (like the Faubourg Saint-Antoine), in much of Paris members of different classes lived in the same buildings, on different floors: the bourgeois on the second floor, the seamstress in the attic. Now, under the Second Empire, there was increasing class segregation, sharper distinctions between wealthy residential districts in western and central Paris, and the working-class "Siberias" in the banlieue where the city merged with the surrounding countryside. Since the construction projects of the Empire attracted even more workers to the city, the population doubled again between 1850 and 1870 (to some two million inhabitants).

There were fashionable places, fashionable times of day: Four in the afternoon was the correct time to take a carriage ride in the Bois de Boulogne, a former royal hunting ground that was revitalize under the Second Empire. After 1857, it was also the site of the yearly Grand Prix de Paris, a great social event in the fashionable calendar. There was an appropriate fashion for each occasion, season, and time of day. As Uzanne wrote:

These successive fashions, so strange, so curious . . . we marshall . . . before our readers' gaze, amidst those various surroundings of Paris, amongst which, in the course of these last hundred years, they have moved and had their being.

Fashion plates frequently at least alluded to the various scenes of fash­ ionable rendezvous-the park within which one appeared in walking or riding costume or through which one glided in carriage dress; the opera where one ascended the staircase in view of all spectators, and so on. But Uzanne preferred to use pictures that were more detailed and less "com­monplace" for his fashion histories:

Each of the colored illustrations is a faithful witness, a complete representation, of some corner of Paris, vanished now, or utterly changed. Fashion figures therein only as a logical and indispensible accessory, and all the inter­ est is centered in the background of the picture, which reveals one of the most fashionable aspects of our ancient city.5

It is idle to regret that he found the fashion plate to be "commonplace," especially in light of the quality of his illustrations. It is more important that he recognized the deep significance of the fashion arena.

A bird's-eye view of Paris would reveal that by the second half of the nineteenth century, the western districts were wealthy and distinguished, the center more heterogeneous, and the east working-class and petit bourgeois. The Left Bank included the bohemian Latin Quarter, some quieter and more "conventional" districts, and the highly aristocratic and correct Faubourg Saint Germaine. The relative geographical isolation of the Fau­ bourg Saint Germaine corresponded to its exclusivity and emphasis on private social rituals and "in-group" fashion references. The wealthy fi­ nanciers living in the Chaussee d'An tin area on the Right Bank were thought to favor a more extravagant mode of life.

The fashionable world, as such, was primarily situated on the Right Bank, which was associated with

movement, pleasure,noise, and frivolity; it is distinctly southern in its characteristics. The women there are more fashionable, better dressed, and have all the characteristics of the true Parisienne6

The rue de la Paix was a central axis with many of the most fashionable shops, "remarkable for the beauty of their frontage." Not only was shopping one of the most popular new semipublic occupations for women, but, of course, the relative exclusivity of the neighborhood added to its attraction. Many fashionable theatres, restaurants, and cafes (such as the Cafe Tortoni, on the corner of the boulevard des Italiens and the rue Taitbout)were concentrated in this small area, which had been a center of social life since the Restoration and continued to be so under the July Monarchy and the Second Empire.

The geography of fashion could be traversed by moving from the outer suburbs of the city in toward the center:

In the morning, between seven and nine o'clock, the streets of Paris present a spectacle without analog anywhere else in the world, one made to charm the eye of the artist and attract the moving eye of the dreamer.... Women descend, dressed somberly, the majority with pale faces and serious expres­ sions, from distant faubourgs toward the c.enter of the city.... These women are . . . the workers of elegance. The apprentices, the "arpettes" . . . enter among the graver figures of the workers, mingling with these women's black dresses, which are almost uniforms, almost religious, some truly amazing dresses and costume inventions. . . . The apprentices are . . completely unique . . . thin little birds, with unclassifiable clothing . . . and the funniest hats.... Montmartre and Batignolles, Belleville and Bastille, Montrouge and the Avenue d'Orleans, these are the three most abundant sources from which precipitate the morning rivers.... One could baptize this ... route, from the Place Clichy to the Place d'Opera, the Milliners' Way. 7

Moving from east to west, the stroller came across many of the city's social types. Along the Faubourg Saint-Antoine (always a revolutionary district) were the working women, such as shop girls and washerwomen. Near the Bastille were the clerks, saleswomen, and lace workers. From the north, moving toward the center, were the market women, small tradeswomen, cooks, and housekeepers.

On nearing the Palais Royale, there is a complete transformation in the type and physiognomy of the passer-by. They become better dressed and even smart; dressmakers ... young married women to shops or amusements, governesses and children's nurses, foreign visitors . . . all gloved and cor­ rectly dressed in• well-fitting clothes . . . going either towards the Bon Marche or the Opera.... Then ascending the Champs-Elysees towards the Place de !'Etoile, we see all the morning occupations of fashionable life, ... from the lady on horseback to the carriages . . . bearing pretty demi-mondaines . . . on their way to the Bois de Boulogne.8

Unlike the collection of little neighborhoods that made up the old Paris, the new Paris was essentially a public arena -- although sentinels stood at the gateways of the Tuileries Garden, to prevent the intrusion of "men in blouses, persons with heavy parcels, and dogs." Only relatively well-dressed persons were permitted to enjoy the flower beds and afternoon band concerts outside the imperial residence. That dress marked the dividing line was a long-established French convention going back to the prerevolution­ ary period when anyone could enter Versailles, providing they were suit- ably attired. Now, however, suitable dress was far more easily obtained, and patterns of entertainment increasingly took people out of their homes and neighborhoods into the wider urban world.

Unlike the situation in most countries, women also participated in the pleasures of Paris, although respectable Frenchwomen almost always did so as part of a family group. As the Goncourts wrote in 1860:

Social life is going through a great evolution. .. . I see women, children, households, families in this cafe [the Eldorado]. The interior is passing away. Life turns back to become public.9

New forms of recreation developed that shifted away from the old, more­ or-less private contexts of family and neighborhood, to become public, commercial, even standardized entertainment. Semi-public areas, however, were safer for women: Precisely because only those in "decent apparel" were allowed to enter the Tuileries, it was one of the best places to see "French women, especially those of the middle class." "Throughout the summer season, young mothers and their children may be found spending the whole day . .. unostentatious yet elegant in their dresses, graceful and orderly in their deportment." 10

The people who were best placed to exploit fashion to alter their apparent identity were often those who belonged to new social strata, people whose class positions were ambiguous, because people like them had not really existed before. The new white-collar workers, people like office clerks and shop assistants, entered into the fashion game often more wholeheartedly than the members of the old bourgeoisie. Although deep class divisions still existed, individuals had far greater freedom to present them­ selves as they wished to be seen. Fashion served both to maintain the hierarchy and, subtly, to weaken it-as anonymous individuals were increasingly judged on the basis of their appearance, of who they appeared to be.