Samuel Pepys' fashion prints reveal his guilty pleasure: Fancy French clothes
A collection of French fashion engravings offers precious new insights into the life of Samuel Pepys years after his premature final diary entry. The prints show the tailor's son remained fascinated by the power of fashion ...
Most of what we know about Samuel Pepys (1633–1703), the famous English diarist and naval administrator, comes from the diary that he kept from 1660–69. He wrote about everything from women to Parmesan cheese, and the Great Fire of London, but he also wrote a lot about clothes. However, Pepys lived for another 34 years and while surviving letters offer clues, we know less about the second, more privileged half of his life.
University of Cambridge historian Marlo Avidon reveals fascinating new insights having studied Pepys' private collection of fashion prints in the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where Pepys had been a student. 2024 marks the 300th anniversary of Magdalene acquiring Pepys' private library including his original diaries.
The library contains one of the largest bound collections of 17th-century French fashion prints in the world. Avidon, a Ph.D. researcher at Christ's College, Cambridge, focuses on two of its volumes, the "Habits de France" and "Modes de Paris," which comprise over a hundred fashion illustrations printed between 1670 and 1696.
Appearing today in the journal The Seventeenth Century, Avidon's article publishes eight images from the collection for the first time. Avidon links one of these images to a cringe-worthy episode in Pepys' diary.
In 1669, Pepys wrote that he was "afeared to be seen" in a summer suit he had just bought "because it was too fine with the gold lace at the hands." Finally he plucked up the courage but a socially superior colleague spotted him in the park and told him the sleeves were above his station. Pepys decided "never to appear in Court" with the sleeves and made a tailor cut them off, "as it is fit I should."
Jean Dieu de Saint-Jean, Habit Noir (evening wear), etching c. 1670. A print collected by Samuel Pepys showing a fashionable elite Frenchman proudly wearing lace cuffs and ribbons. Credit: Reproduced by permission of the Pepys Library, Magdalene College Cambridge
Jean Dieu de Saint-Jean, Habit de Ville, etching, c. 1670. A print in Samuel Pepys' collection depicting a fashionable city gown. Someone has colored the embroidered silk pattern with amateurish squiggly lines. Marlo Avidon suggests that this print could have been colored by Mary Skinner. Credit: Reproduced by permission of the Pepys Library, Magdalene College Cambridge
Antoine Trouvain, Femme de qualité en deshabille negligé, etching, 1695. A print in Samuel Pepys' collection which looks more professionally colored. Credit: Reproduced by permission of the Pepys Library, Magdalene College Cambridge
The frieze inscription 'Bibliotheca Pepysiana 1724' records the date of the Pepys Library's arrival at Magdalene College, Cambridge, 300 years ago. Painted above the inscription are Pepys' arms and his motto 'Mens cujusque is est quisque' ('The mind's the man'). Credit: Magdalene College, Cambridge