The skills of fashion: guild conflicts between bonnetières-coiffeuses and merchant mercers over enjolivement in eighteenth-century Rouen.

This article investigates the history of women's coiffure trades in eighteenth-century Rouen, France, focusing on the legal and economic conflicts between the female guild of bonnetières, brodeuses, enjoliveuses, and coiffeuses (beret makers, embroiderers, embellishers, and hairdressers) and the male-dominated merchant mercers over the right to embellish (enjoliver) fashion items. It highlights how the acceleration of fashion innovation complicated the definition and control of skills related to embellishment, especially since women's coiffures were entirely composed of such ornamentation, blurring the lines between making and decorating. The study emphasizes the unique legal status and agency of women within Rouen's guild system, where female guilds held significant rights and actively defended their economic prerogatives against male competitors through legal disputes. By examining these dynamics in a wealthy provincial city rather than Paris, the article sheds light on the broader commercial and social transformations in the fashion industry during the ancien régime and the evolving conceptualization of skilled labor in fashion production.