Décolletage disputes in early modern France

Abstract

This article looks at moralistic reactions to the fashion of décolletage during the seventeenth century in France. No previous research has focused on this specific movement, the scope of which is larger than has previously been acknowledged. A series of publications and sermons took aim at plunging necklines, particularly in church settings. Far from being isolated and discrete episodes, the wave of sermons and works condemning the fashion may be contextualised as part of a concerted campaign initially orchestrated by the secretive Compagnie du Saint-Sacrement. The anti-décolletage rhetoric coincides with the increasing participation and presence of women in culture and society and may be interpreted as an attempt to regulate female agency. The article concludes that this body of clerical works established a blueprint of victim-blaming that has proved to be enduring. Moreover, it gave such sentiments the stamp of religious respectability.