Contradictory Colors: The Tricolor in French Fashion 1939-1944

The French tricolor was originally derived from the cockades worn during the French Revolution by the Paris Militia and citizens who supported a constitutional monarchy and adopted it as a visual manifestation of their political beliefs. In 1790 the tricolor was approved as the official flag of France as a symbolic break with the past. While each of the 3 colors’ individual symbolic associations have been debated (and disputed), from the outset the adoption of the tricolor was affiliated with patriotism and a revolutionary spirit.

From 1940-1944 during the Vichy regime and the subsequent German occupation of France, the tricolor made a ‘fashion’ comeback and can be identified in fashion design, illustration and photography; Mme Gres opened her salon with a parade of tricolor haute couture garments, Marie-Claire magazine repeatedly featured covers in the palette, and surviving fashion items show that ordinary women made hats, bags and shoes in red, white and blue.

However, due to the complicated French political situation, the tricolor’s adoption and symbolic significance was highly complex during this period. Where as to some its use signaled support for France, the Vichy regime and Marshal Petain (who had signed the armistice and entered on a route of willful collaboration with Germany), for others it symbolized subversion and opposition to the occupiers and the government, to others still it was a symbol in support of the Free French and de Gaulle – yet to all it remained, and indeed was claimed as a symbol of patriotism. During this period the use of the tricolor thus questioned the notion of patriotism itself and evidences that readings of color can be a highly complex socio-political undertaking, which is not only context- but also reader-dependent.

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