'Condemned as unnatural': 10 images of 19th-Century Parisian women who rebelled against the trouser ban

In 1800, women in Paris were banned from wearing trousers. Throughout the 19th and early 20th Century, many flouted or found a way around the law, rebelling against the stifling restrictions in order to dress – or in some cases live – as men. Here are 10 images capturing their distinctive style and their bravery.

During the French Revolution (1789-1799) many of the women of Paris had donned trousers to join male protestors on the barricades. Their hopes for liberty and equality on a par with men were expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Women. Yet its author Olympe DeGouge went on to be guillotined in 1793, condemned as an "unnatural" woman.

In 1800 the wearing of trousers for women was banned in Paris "to put an end to the period when women were demanding rights and wishing to participate in the political life of their society," says Marine Kisiel, curator of new exhibition, A Wardrobe of One's Own: Dissident Femininities in the 19th Century, at the Palais Galliera in Paris. 

French women in the 19th Century were expected to be content in the role of wife and mother. They were to be admired by painters and poets and defined by their feminine attire. But a great many French women rebelled against these strictures, particularly at the end of the 19th and early 20th Centuries, when the first wave of feminism coincided with a burgeoning lesbian subculture in Paris.

The fight for the right to wear male clothing is an overlooked chapter in the history of women's rights, perhaps no more so than in France. Masculine clothing gave women a sense of agency as they broke down barriers to enter universities and professions that had previously been excluded to them, or as they sought to freely express their sexuality. The press mocked them, the authorities cracked down, and the medical establishment condemned them as "inverts", but women continued to push for sartorial freedom. Here, we explore this history in 10 images.

Masculine fashion for women in France first appeared in the late 18th Century in the form of the riding habit, a style imported from England. Both the jacket and the women who wore them were known as Amazons, after the female warriors of Greek legend, suggesting that these agile, sporty women were viewed with both fascination and fear. As the century progressed, tailored jackets and coats became an increasingly important part of women's wardrobes.

While feminised versions of male styles were socially acceptable, wearing male clothing was not. This famously did not stop George Sand, the groundbreaking author and journalist who shunned gender conventions, living and loving as she chose. For Sand, wearing male clothing wasn't intended as a provocation, it was simply more practical. She wore it "to gain access to spaces reserved for men, such as the theatre stalls, because men's clothing was more economical than women's attire, and because she wished to enjoy freedom of movement and action," Kisiel tells the BBC. 

Given the patriarchal nature of French 19th-Century society, it may come as a surprise to learn that a number of women took up arms. "Numerous accounts and photographic series exist, and we know it was a significant phenomenon," says Kisiel. They were excluded from joining the army proper but they were able to join the irregular volunteer corps. During the Franco-Prussian War, Marie-Antoinette Lix did just that, taking part in the defence of the Vosges department, and distinguishing herself during the Battle of Nompatelize. 

Jane – or Jeanne – Dieulafoy also fought, alongside her husband Marcel, during the war. She took up masculine attire once again when the couple embarked on a series of archaeological excursions in Persia (now Iran). Thereafter Dieulafoy chose to dress in dapper men's suits, for which she managed to obtain a permit, although on what grounds remains unclear. This seems to have done nothing to prevent her becoming a major society figure. The couple hosted an exclusive salon and regularly socialised with both the French prime minister and president.

With concerns around women in male clothing growing towards the end of the century, masculinised lesbians bore the brunt of much of this hostility. "Through both their gender presentation and their sexuality, they doubly eluded heteropatriarchal male control," the art historian Lola Charnay tells the BBC. They were frequently caricatured by the press who "created a scapegoat for a collective imagination that oscillated between fascination with those who broke free from social norms, and a need to tame that defiance in order to maintain a degree of social control," says Charnay.

Although the rules against women wearing trousers were vigorously enforced at the time, cycling was the one activity where it was permitted (it was later extended to horse riding). However, not even this activity had escaped the male establishment's desire to intervene in every aspect of women's lives. Doctors had initially voiced concern, before concluding that it was good for women's health and would produce the vigorous mothers that France needed. Women, in contrast, simply saw it as a route to freedom and the bicycle became a powerful symbol of female emancipation in the Belle Époque.

The artist Rosa Bonheur, pictured here on the right, is one of the few women known to have been granted a permit to wear trousers for other reasons. Initially given one for health reasons when she accompanied her partner on a trip to the Pyrenees, she was later granted another for the abattoir visits which enabled her to conduct research for her animal paintings. Eventually "it became a part of her public profile, and she started to play up to it a little bit," says her biographer, Catherine Hewitt. 

Despite the attitudes of society at large, Paris was home to a thriving lesbian subculture in the late 19th Century, and Mathilde de Morny, better known as Missy, was one of its leading lights. The daughter of the Duke of Morny, Missy had entered into a marriage of convenience with the Marquis de Belbeuf, who was himself homosexual, although the pair divorced in 1903. Openly lesbian, Missy adapted flamboyant masculine style and had an affair with the writer Colette who included a fictional version of her in the novel The Pure and the Impure. 

The daughter of wealthy parents from the US, the artist Romaine Brooks spent much of her life in Paris where her long-term partner Nathalie Clifford Barney also lived. Sporting a short hairstyle and elegantly tailored masculine clothing, Brooks frequented a circle of equally wealthy, unconventional Europeans and Americans, many of whom were also creatively minded and lesbian. This 1920s self-portrait epitomises her refined, androgynous style.

However, the vast majority of lesbians who adopted male clothing were neither rich nor famous. They were simply ordinary women who wanted to assert their identity. Where and how they were able to dress as they chose "depended on their strategies, their 'passing,' and their social context. For a great many ordinary individuals, nothing is known due to a lack of archival records, yet photographs reveal that they constituted a multitude," says Kisiel.

The ban remained on the statute books for more than 200 years, and was formally repealed in 2013 – though it had been largely ignored for decades. Every Parisian woman who today thinks nothing of pulling on a pair of trousers owes these uncompromising women a debt of gratitude. 

A Wardrobe of One's Own: Dissident Femininities in the 19th Century is at the Palais Galliera in Paris until 14 February 2027.

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