Fashion and the Maritime Empires

Abstract

These are the opening lines of a popular French song that has its roots in the Caribbean islands that were colonized by France. 2 It is written from the perspective of a Creole woman who is expressing her grief as she realizes that her lover – presumably a white French sailor – has left the island. In the song there is a deliberate deployment of textile artefacts ( foulard and Madras ) as symbols of the loss that the woman experiences. She is not only sorry that her lover is leaving, but also lamenting that she will no longer have access to fine things like textiles and gold jewellery ( collier choux ), which were fashionable in the eighteenth century in the French Caribbean.

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