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UNBELIEVABLE. You ignorant, Woke Troglodytes! You have NO IDEA what these sentiments cost the Tradespeople of France just after the French Revolution: Their livelihoods. After the Guilds were dissolved, trained and untrained seamstresses were paid the SAME LOW WAGE.
1/ https://twitter.com/DrKarlynB/status/1288255731993583618
1/ https://twitter.com/DrKarlynB/status/1288255731993583618
The Seamstress Guild of Paris was comprised of women, typically from lower income households, who managed to pay for an apprenticeship with a Mistress Seamstress. Earning a place in the Seamstress Guild purchased these women several things.
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Among them, 1) A bargaining chip to be used as a dowry: Seamstress' were viewed as respected members of the community, virtuous, and honest. 2) This also provided these women the ability to work from home while raising children - contributing to the household income.
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There were also many women who opened their own shops and catered to a very large clientele, not just the nobility. For example: Seamstress Rose Bertin endeavoured with her shop to make fashion accessible to ALL income levels.
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Rose accomplished this by offering to refurbish old garments to update them, provided paste jewels and ribbons, and manufacturing replica pieces of clothing and accessories which looked similar to what the nobles were wearing, but at an affordable price.
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Rose Bertin also manufactured dolls, dressed like Queen Marie Antoinette, and clad in other fashions, from milkmaids to seamstresses, pricing her dolls in such a manner which would allow every little girl to dream as she did.
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The French Fashion trades employed tens of thousands of people - from washerwomen, who built businesses washing clothes, to Linen Drapers who made undergarments and sold linen, and even les Fripiers who sold second-hand clothing. Yes, and seamstresses and tailors too.
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At the end of the 18th century, the most poor Parisian had raised their income by 215% because of the emergence of the French Fashion trade. One could purchase some fine linen cloth and if they fell on hard times, could then sell it to feed the family.
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When the Guilds were dissolved by the French Revolutionary Gov't, the seamstresses lost their livelihoods and were later forced to work to make military uniforms in a similar situation as sweatshops appear today. All were paid the same low wage, regardless of training.
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It took years for an apprentice seamstress to learn a skill, demonstrate it to the satisfaction of the Seamstress Guild of Paris, and then pay for her membership to the Guild. Seamstresses worked longer hours than the typical Parisian woman - 14-16 hours was normal.
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Naturally, this made finding time to find a suitor difficult. Surprisingly, 23% of all seamstresses remained unmarried. Historians suspect that one reason for this might be because they possessed financial independence and could provide without a husband.
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A very long story shorter - Tweets like this really piss me off because it does undermine the struggles of so many people who were skilled professionals and starved to death because some F*ckwit thought that the Parisian Trade Guilds were a form of "Privilege."
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When in fact it was a skill which was developed over time and they were a vital part of an emerging economy which raised the most impoverished Parisians, those who died owning only the clothes on their back, to enter into a middle-class.
End Rant.
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End Rant.
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