Podcast Summary: New Books Network Episode: Justine De Young, "The Art of Parisian Chic: Modern Women and Modern Artists in Impressionist Paris" (Bloomsbury, 2025) Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher | Guest: Dr. Justine De Young Date: October 6, 2025

Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, Dr. Miranda Melcher talks with Dr. Justine De Young about her new book, "The Art of Parisian Chic: Modern Women and Modern Artists in Impressionist Paris." The conversation explores the ways in which women in 19th-century Paris fashioned their public selves, the significance of fashion as an evolving tool for reinvention, the rise of distinct feminine archetypes, and how these intersected with art and social commentary. The discussion highlights how the codes of dress, social mobility, and gendered expectations of the past continue to echo in contemporary society.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Motivation for the Book

• Gaps in Art History: Dr. De Young details her frustration with art historical accounts that label women in paintings as "fashionable" without evidence or period context.
• Objective: The book aims to let readers “look back into the past with a period eye” and understand the social codes and stereotypes attached to women’s dress in Impressionist Paris.

  “It really felt like an important gap in the field… to understand why paintings that look very normal and maybe inoffensive today were offensive or far more intriguing to period audiences.” — Dr. Justine De Young [05:58]

2. The Five Fashionable Types

• Dr. De Young organizes her book around five archetypes of fashionable women in late 19th-century Paris:

  • The Cocotte: The extravagant mistress/courtesan
  • The Jeune Veuve: The young/“sexy” widow
  • The Amazon: The independent, equestrian woman
  • The Demoiselle de Magasin: The department store shop girl
  • The Parisienne: The city’s emblem of chic

• Key Features:

  • Types were aspirational, blurred class lines, and were fluid (women could move between or perform as different types).
  • Critics judged women and art by how well they embodied or subverted these types.

  “These types were also very fluid... There was a lot of interest in the period and a lot of artists and caricaturists were focusing on these particular types.” — Dr. Justine De Young [09:42]

3. Historical Context: The Democratization of Fashion

• Economic & Technological Shifts: Rise of mass production, affordable fabrics, department stores, widespread use of sewing machines, and ready-to-wear clothing.
• Cultural Dynamics: Growing anonymity in the city, the democratization of self-fashioning, and the emergence of a new public visibility for women.
• Fashion’s New Pace: Accelerated change in styles, the advent of fashion magazines, spread of “microtrends.”

  “The pace of fashion increases dramatically… the accessibility of not only the clothes, but the knowledge about what are the latest trends, thanks to the fashion periodicals and the publishing industry.” — Dr. Justine De Young [20:14]

4. Mourning Fashion: Industry and Anxieties

• Mourning attire became a booming industry, including all-black wardrobes, accessories, and even stationery.
• The social pressure to display proper (and fashionable) mourning led to anxiety and a booming secondhand market for mourning garments.

  “Mourning becomes a very visible form of fashionability, oddly enough, that you were expected to properly display in public and became one of those types.” — Dr. Justine De Young [28:38]

Case Studies & Memorable Moments

Case Study: Monet's ‘Camille’

• Segment: [31:11]–[43:45]
• Whereas art historians now see Monet’s painting “Camille” as a romantic portrait, contemporary critics unanimously read it as a portrait of a cocotte (courtesan) due to fashion cues, body language, title choice, and pop culture references.
• Monet heightened certain features (beauty marks, hint of blush) associated with mistresses, included fashion trends from a smash-hit play (“La Famille Benoitant”), and omitted domestic backdrops to position Camille as a public, seductive figure.
• Quote:

  “It was much more difficult for us today if we’re not up on French senatorial proclamations or speeches or rather obscure 19th-century theater productions. But it does show that Monet… is trying to get, catch people’s eye… a ripped from the headlines painting.” — Dr. Justine De Young [41:20]

Type Deep-Dive: The Amazon (The Equestrian Woman)

• Segment: [44:42]–[48:31]
• Riding becomes more accessible due to new rental stables and public parks. Empress Eugénie models French style riding in fashion plates, making the Amazon both aspirational and performative (studios even offered equestrian photos for non-riders).
• Quote:

  “Even if you couldn’t ride and didn’t have the money to rent a horse… you could get your photo taken as an Amazon.” — Dr. Justine De Young [47:50]

Type Deep-Dive: Department Store Shop Girls

• Segment: [49:16]–[53:47]
• Shop girls represented a new, upwardly mobile, fashionable, and respectable urban presence—blurring class distinctions and causing anxiety over morality and social mobility.

Race and the Parisienne

• Segment: [55:25]–[58:52]
• While women of color existed in all female archetypes, the title ‘Parisienne’ (the ideal of French chic) was racially exclusive. Black women, despite being described as beautiful and fashionable, were never labeled as Parisienne in reviews due to racially encoded beauty standards.
• Quote:

  “Those body and beauty ideals at the time were very racially encoded, that to be a beautiful Parisienne necessitated white skin.” — Dr. Justine De Young [57:14]

Memorable Story: The Real Coquette

• Segment: [62:55]–[69:37]
• Dr. De Young shares the “almost too perfect” real-life story of Sidonie Marguerite Martin, a young widow-turned-courtesan whose murder trial captivated Paris, illustrating the very types examined in the book intersecting with fame, notoriety, and visual culture.

Notable Quotes

• On Stereotypes & Self-Fashioning:

  “They’re really trying to diagnose everything about a woman just from looking at her.” — Dr. Justine De Young [09:11]

• On Fashion and Anxiety:

  “Women were constantly in this state of anxiety about whether… they were properly mourning.” — Dr. Justine De Young [25:50]

• On Taste vs. Fashion:

  “Chasing after the latest trends is maybe not the best thing to do, and maybe it actually betrays a lack of personal style… So taste becomes a marker of class in the same way that merely wearing fashionable goods had in the past.” — Dr. Justine De Young [22:11]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction & Motivation – 03:01–06:29
• The Five Fashionable Types – 06:58–11:38
• Democratization of Fashion – 12:31–19:26
• Fashion’s Accelerating Pace – 20:10–24:44
• Mourning Dress & Industry – 25:10–29:07
• Case Study: Monet’s Camille – 31:11–43:46
• The Amazon / Equestrian Women – 44:42–48:31
• Department Store Shop Girls – 49:16–53:47
• Race and the Parisienne – 55:25–58:52
• The Challenge of Being a 'Parisienne' – 59:24–62:35
• Real Life Coquette, Sidonie Marguerite Martin – 62:55–69:37
• New Project Teaser (Louisa Bema) – 69:54–71:32

Conclusion & Next Steps

Dr. De Young concludes by sharing a sneak peek of her next project: a study of Louisa Bema, a forgotten yet highly successful and openly queer Impressionist painter, highlighting ongoing interests in gender, art, and self-fashioning. For anyone fascinated by art, fashion, and social history, Dr. De Young's book offers rich insights into how “Parisian chic” emerged as both an aesthetic and a powerful social system—a legacy that continues to shape modern understandings of style and identity.

Book: "The Art of Parisian Chic: Modern Women and Modern Artists in Impressionist Paris" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
Guest: Dr. Justine De Young
Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher