'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.

Amazon on horseback (1799) 

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.

George Sand dressed as a man by Eugène Delacroix (1834)

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........

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