Asger Risom
Long before the internet existed, post-revolutionary France birthed the world’s first lifestyle influencers to help newly wealthy citizens navigate a shattered social hierarchy.
Long before Instagram and TikTok dominated our screens, the original lifestyle influencers were busy shaping public taste in the turbulent aftermath of the French Revolution.
According to a recent article published by The Conversation, this cultural phenomenon emerged as a desperate society tried to navigate newly disrupted social hierarchies. These early trendsetters provided essential guidance on food, fashion, and etiquette for a rising class of newly wealthy citizens.
A society in desperate need of direction
Prior to the historic uprisings of 1789, strict behavioral guides only catered to aristocrats who already knew their exact place in the societal hierarchy. The bloody revolution completely shattered these rigid class boundaries, creating an entirely new demographic of wealthy military officers and opportunistic administrators. Suddenly, these newly elevated elites desperately needed to learn how to properly fit into high society rather than simply learning how to behave.
This profound social uncertainty created a massive market for comprehensive lifestyle guidance that covered everything from interior design to proper dining etiquette. In 1806, the Parisian gastronome Grimod de la Reynière launched a groundbreaking periodical that advised readers on food, fashion, and theatrical life. His widely read publication functioned much like a modern social media feed, offering curated recommendations to an audience eager for cultural validation.
The unexpected career trajectories of these early tastemakers perfectly reflected the unprecedented professional mobility of this chaotic historical era. Grimod himself transitioned from a lawyer to a grocer before finally reinventing himself as history’s very first professional restaurant critic. Similarly, a former priest named Pierre de La Mésangère transformed himself into a powerful fashion editor who dictated societal trends for decades.
The women who defined French fashion
Before the revolution dismantled the monarchy, France’s fashion establishment was exclusively controlled by royal consorts and highly visible mistresses. Once the dust settled, cultural influence rapidly shifted toward the charismatic wives of wealthy bankers, savvy financiers, and prominent political figures. Women like Juliette Récamier and Thérésa Tallien quickly became the undisputed arbiters of style, with their extravagant outfits endlessly scrutinized by the emerging popular press.
One of the most fascinating figures of this era was Madame Hamelin, a Creole woman originally born on the Caribbean island of Saint Domingue. She became a prominent member of the Merveilleuses, an elite group of influential women who popularized a highly distinctive, neoclassical way of dressing. Hamelin’s daring tunics and elegant hairstyles were widely copied across Paris, while her lavish salon hosted the most brilliant minds of the post-revolutionary period.
For these powerful female trendsetters, establishing good taste was never just about isolated aesthetic choices or simply picking out expensive clothes. They viewed their influence as a comprehensive way of living that encompassed everything from selecting the finest wallpapers to serving the correct foods. Their ultimate ambition was to shape public taste entirely, effectively rebuilding a fractured society through shared aesthetics and carefully curated material culture.
Bridging the cultural divide
While Britain also produced notable tastemakers during its industrial revolution, the underlying social conditions were completely different from those in France. English society evolved gradually, allowing new industrial fortunes to slowly integrate with the established aristocracy without causing massive cultural disruptions. Figures like Beau Brummell and Emma Hamilton certainly wielded immense social authority, but they were largely operating within an unbroken, traditional class structure.
In stark contrast, the French Revolution had brutally severed the nation’s cultural ties, leaving newly rich citizens without any shared behavioral map. The sudden introduction of restaurants created entirely new public spaces where people from vastly different backgrounds could observe and judge each other’s tastes. Consequently, reading lifestyle guides became an absolute necessity for anyone hoping to successfully navigate these treacherous new social environments.
Ultimately, these early lifestyle influencers served as a crucial cultural bridge that helped a deeply fractured nation learn to speak a common language. Napoleon actively encouraged this revival of luxury trades, viewing the codification of high-end taste as a necessary tool for establishing political legitimacy. The next time we look to digital arbiters for aesthetic inspiration, we are actually participating in a centuries-old tradition born from the ashes of revolution.
