A feather boa squirms on the floor, a little black dress is thrown on the sofa, and a tie is lying next to the bed: many have celebrated the New Year with dignity and are now fast asleep in 2023. Others dress up fresh and elegant on January 1st to be able to go to the New Year’s Eve concert at Casino Bern, KKL Luzern or Tonhalle in Zurich. Whether it is at the end of the year or at the beginning of the year: people are especially fashionable these days in society.
“However, fashion is much more than clothes,” writes German publicist Kersten Knipp (56) in her recent book. “Ultimately, it covers almost all aspects of human life, intervenes in all affairs and dictates to people how to behave.” All this goes back to the European awareness of the art of living in a society that developed in the 17th century, “and at the same time pleasant” (Knipp).
Polite manners have their roots in France. But even in the court of the Sun King Louis XIV (1638–1715), etiquette is a mask for cold, calculating people. “This bad reputation has a history,” Knipp writes. “Even at the end of the 17th century, court society was still under the impression of the wars of the last century.” Religious struggle between Catholics and Reformed, culminating in St. Bartholomew’s Night (August 23-24, 1572).
War horses, constantly wanting to fight, are no longer in demand – a thinner blade is needed. “It is women who are gradually bringing a new way of life into French society,” says Knipp. “They give a new, beautiful tone, enriching the conversation with stylistic nuances.” Men who want to learn how to behave themselves cannot but attend ladies’ schools, the so-called salons.
The salon is a place of communication. The guests cultivate an unconstrained form of gallantry, a game of involuntary coquetry, an art of flirting, which, however, knows its limits. “It is no longer enough to have good looks,” Knipp writes. “In order to be considered truly attractive, in gallant circles they now need a spirit, the ability for intelligent and playful conversation.”
Even if polite treatment of each other today is reduced and hardly a man holds the door open for a woman or gives her a seat on a tram, gallantry is a legacy of past centuries that cannot be denied. “Careful conversation with all the senses, free attention to everything around: all this, I argue, makes the world not only more pleasant and beautiful, but also better – at least a little,” Knipp concludes.
Kersten Knipp, “The Invention of Elegance – Europe in the 17th Century and the Art of Social Living”, Reclam