Les Incroyables et Les Merveilleuses French Post-Revolutionary Fashion
Les Incroyables The Apogee of Dandyism
Following the French Revolution, after the fall of Robespierre and the end of the Terror, a wave of relief and of fashion giddiness swept Paris.
Young men known as “Incroyables” and their female counterparts “Les Merveilleuses” rejoiced in adopting a wildly exaggerated look which flouted the social conventions of the time. They were the ultimate dandy set, the golden youth of their time, arrogant and outrageous. (See Attributes of an Incroyable, opposite for more on their attire).
Some of the Incroyables, known as Muscadins (because of their heavy musk perfume), had a dark side. They organized into bands and roamed the streets using their bludgeons and canes to harass the revolutionary Jacobins.
