The cultural role of diplomats in an age of war: French fashion in Vienna under Leopold I

• Published in: The Seventeenth century Vol. 36; no. 3; pp. 485 - 507
• Main Author: Hyden-Hanscho, Veronika
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Durham Routledge 04.05.2021; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: consumption patterns; Cultural diplomacy; Cultural relations; Culture; Diplomatic & consular services; Fashion; France; Habsburg monarchy; Leopold I (1640-1705); Louis XIV, King of France (1638-1715); Politics; Spouses; Textiles; France; Austria; Vienna Austria
• ISSN: 0268-117X; 2050-4616
• DOI: 10.1080/0268117X.2021.1924991

The annual fashion cycle of Louis XIV's court was the starting point of the French domination and economic supremacy in Europe's textile and fashion sector. This paper examines the specific circumstances under which French fashion captured the Viennese elite market despite the dynastical and political antagonism between the houses Habsburg and Bourbon. It examines the networks of Habsburg diplomats that organized decisive transfers of fashion items. In contrast to dynastically linked courts or political allies such as Munich, London and Stockholm, the Viennese example highlights the planned activities of French diplomats in Vienna as cultural brokers, several diplomatic and practical barriers notwithstanding. It likewise reveals the informal strategies of the French envoy's wives, household staff and valets in distributing textiles and fashion within the imperial family and the court nobility. It offers an intriguing example of how cultural diplomacy created ways to communicate with the enemy, when the official diplomatic channels were closed off.