García Falgueras, María Alicia

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

abstract
The Spanish War of Independence was waged between 1808 and 1814, when the 
Romantic movement was already in full swing in Germany and France. In 1812, 
Spain’s first Constitution was drawn up in the city of Cadiz. At a time of such 
political and artistic ferment, trends in fashion could be seen as a reflection of 
this clash between styles, countries and ideologies. 
In the later Romanticism of mid-nineteenth century Spain, the differences 
between men’s and women’s fashioned reached new extremes. The female 
waistline became ever narrower as women were relegated to a purely decorative 
role, and the position of men as the active and productive members of society 
became firmly established. But at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the 
time of the writing of the 1812 Constitution, the dress associated with different 
professions maintained the delicacy and subtlety of the timid beginnings of 
Romanticism in Spain and reflected the identity of each of these occupations with 
pragmatism and elegance.
In this article we examine some of the costumes recreated for the exhibition 
“Fashion in Cadiz in 1812”, held to mark the bicentenary of the Spanish 
Constitution. We interpret them from the perspective of early European 
Romanticism and the ideals and social changes of the time.
introduction
When the word “Romanticism” is used in a discussion involving men and women, 
it usually provokes a heated debate that reveals the gaps between the sexes which 
were taken to new extremes in the Romantic period. Is this huge gulf the legacy 
left to us by this historical period of great poets and indefatigable dreamers? 
Why is there this contradiction regarding the term “Romanticism”, which on the 
one hand delights in emotion and feeling and on the other exalts the differences 
between male and female personalities, thus impeding communication between 
them? What happened between the end of the eighteenth century and the middle 
of the nineteenth in Europe, or more precisely in Germany and France?
Fashion in Cadiz in 1812: 
male and female dress in the 
early romantic period
by María Alicia García Falgueras
Doctor in Psychology
Photographs taken in Cadiz, at the exhibition “Fashion in Cadiz in 1812” 
held to mark the bicentenary of the Spanish Constitution
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In Spain the Romantic movement started slightly later, during the reign of 
Isabel II, who ascended the throne in 1833. The Spanish word romanticismo 
is a translation from other languages, such as the English Romantic or the 
French romantique. It seems to refer to the customs and uses of the Romance 
languages, a culture and a linguistic community. However, this translation and 
interpretation has created considerable confusion, since Romantic strands are 
already palpable in the works of polytheistic Hellenic culture. In fact, there is no 
agreement on the origin of Romanticism, since in all countries romantic love, 
passion and emotion have existed, and their inspiration is not solely Latin. 
After the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, all social 
classes felt a certain disenchantment. Romanticism was the vehicle for the 
expression of this melancholy mood and of the revolt against Rationalism, the 
Enlightenment, and political and social norms. The exaltation of the emotions 
and of their importance and relevance for understanding reality and nature 
eventually became an almost fanatical defence of one’s own culture and 
communicative expression. However, precisely because each country and each 
person perceives emotions individually and uniquely, Romanticism opened 
up a gap between countries, accentuating the differences in tiny and perhaps 
insignificant details between cultures and also between men and women. The 
effect of this gap was harmful, as it stifled communication and increased the 
feeling of isolation and suicides. 
FASHION IN CADIZ IN 1812: MALE AND FEMALE DRESS IN THE EARLY ROMANTIC PERIOD55
Explaining feelings with words is sometimes impossible. In the early 
nineteenth century music took on new importance; in Allegros, Presto Agitatos 
and Largo and Lento Assai it expressed the feelings of the age, the painful 
awareness of the ephemeral nature of life, its hardships and its fleeting moments 
of happiness. Among the composers of the day Ludwig van Beethoven, Carl 
Maria Weber, Frederic Chopin and Felix Mendelssohn expressed and shared 
the feeling of Romantic passion through their music. Beethoven, in his tireless 
struggle for life composed in silence, overcoming his physical (but not spiritual) 
disability and was able to understand and help others in their attempts to 
transcend their own limitations. Beethoven’s Romanticism was based on 
reason and human knowledge, which heroically tames the destructive passions, 
overcoming them and creating sublime works. He used the knowledge of the 
time regarding the transmission of sound waves through metals so that he 
could feel the music in spite of his deafness. And as Reason was a vital part of 
his work and of his vision of reality, some people consider that Beethoven was 
not, strictly speaking, a Romantic. 
Fashions in Cadiz in 1812 
In 1812, in the middle of the War of Independence against the French, the first 
draft of the Spanish Constitution was written in Cadiz. This period in Spain 
was one of constant social change. The talk in the streets was of the social and 
political issues, which were discussed often in a light-hearted way in the Cortes 
Chicas, as the coffee-house debates were known, and later more rigorously 
and seriously in the Cortes Grandes, the Assembly. These were difficult, 
contradictory times in which dress played a vital role. 
Young dandies, known in the Spanish of the time as lechuguinos or 
petimetres, appeared on the street in full array (figure 1), aspiring to be taken as 
Figure 1.  
Two examples (A and b) of men’s 
apparel from the period: the dress 
of the lechuguino, pisaverde, 
currutacos or petimetre.  
See details.
A. b.
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aristocrats; they hoped to be heard in the Cortes Chicas and maybe having an 
influence on the Cortes Grandes. As the 1812 Constitution stated: “If it should 
not correspond to the wishes of Your Majesty, nor met the expectations of the 
public, at least the Commission should have fulfilled the mission entrusted to 
it by the Cortes, which should not be understood so much that it should have 
presented a perfect work, but that it should show the way along which the wisdom 
of Congress should guide the discussion so as to reach the term so desired by the 
entire Nation”.1 The Constitution went on: “…all human laws, though drawn 
up with great wisdom, are subject to the irresistible contradiction of unforeseen 
circumstances”.2 
The fabrics used in the Cadiz of 1812 were linen, cotton, silk, wool, velvet, or 
leather, without mixtures. The women’s dresses of the moment, made in fabrics 
with a gentle drape and a high waist, allowed great freedom of movement; the 
Princess or Empire style recalled Neoclassical models rather than the styles 
currently in fashion in France (fig. 2). 
This freedom of movement in female apparel was highly valued. Perhaps it 
is echoed in the liberal Constitution of 1812, where we read: “Note has been 
taken of the teachings of history and the experience in our Monarchy to establish 
the fair balance that there must be between the authority of the Government, 
as responsible for public order and the security of the State, and the liberty of 
which the subjects of a Nation may not be deprived to promote for themselves the 
increase and improvement of their assets and properties.” 3
Another trend we find in the women’s wear of the period rebelled against the 
two Romantic stereotypes of the woman as an object, or as an ethereal nymph 
or spirit. This new trend was the figure of the androgynous woman who wore 
men’s clothing to be able to pass unnoticed and to take part in the dialogues 
and social events reserved only for the men of the period (fig. 3). The prototype 
of this extravagant style was the French poet and aristocrat George Sand, 
1-3 Fragments in italics from 
the 1812 Constitution of 
Cadiz.
Figure 2.  
high-waisted dresses in Princess 
or empire style, embroidered at 
the front (A); puff sleeves and the 
bottom of the skirt (b). 
See detail A.
A. b.
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whose real name was Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin, Baroness of Dudevant. 
After leaving her husband she began to wear men’s clothes, although she wore 
women’s clothes at social meetings; at one of these events she met Chopin, who 
would become her lover. Her masculine “disguises” gained her entry to places 
in Paris that were denied to women of her social status, although her flouting 
of convention lost her some of the privileges she had enjoyed as baroness. 
Other creative intellectuals who adopted unconventional forms of femininity 
were Cecilia Böhl de Faber, who wrote under the male pseudonym of Fernán 
Caballero, and Carolina Coronado, known as “the female Bécquer”, and who 
was the aunt of the writer Ramón Gómez de la Serna. 
The Constitution of 1812 stated: “Of those who are Spaniards, and lawfully 
considered as such: All free-men, born and bred up in the Spanish dominions, 
and their sons”. 4 
The stereotypical woman of Romanticism was often fought over by hot-
blooded men. Weak, alone, often on the verge of fainting, the woman was 
assailed by the cacophony of male voices, as if in an opera in which the Tenor 
and Bass sing to conquer the beloved. The heroine walks on to meet her cruel 
fate; she loses her mind or her life – or both, like Ophelia in Hamlet.
Earlier in history, in Greco-Roman times, the differences between the 
apparel of the sexes were established subtly, with togas and dresses and with 
complements such as hairstyles. During the Romantic period the differences 
between the sexes reached new heights. Men were assigned an active role in 
society, women a decorative one. Men no longer aspired to beauty. And dress 
adapted to this view: men’s styles lost the adornment and decoration which had 
been such a feature of earlier periods. Responding to the needs of the social and 
business worlds men’s dress became uniform and sober, and the rigid, hard-
Figure 3.  
Men’s suit comprising a jacket, 
doublet, and breeches which 
could have been worn by the 
androgynous women of the time. 
See detail.
4 Fragment in italics from 
the 1812 Constitution of 
Cadiz.
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wearing fabrics they wore did not distract attention from the earnest tasks in 
which they were engaged (nor did they cause envy among their peers). At the 
same time, women’s wear became more complex and decorative.
In search of elegance of form and simplicity, the men also wore sashes during 
the Romantic period to accentuate their figure (fig. 4). 
The sash also has its place in history. In the 1812 Constitution we read: “We 
therefore direct and command all tribunals, justices, commanders, governors 
and other authorities, civil, military and ecclesiastical, of every class whatsoever, 
to preserve, follow, comply with, and obey and cause to be preserved, followed, 
complied with, and obeyed, this the above law, in all and every of its branches, 
using their powers and authorities to accomplish the same, and causing it to 
be printed, published and circulated.” 5 And in Art. 279: “The magistrates and 
judges, on taking possession of their posts, swear to uphold the Constitution, to be 
faithful to the King, to observe the law and to administer justice impartially.” 6
occupations and dress
The separation of powers was proposed for the first time in the Constitution 
of 1812. Perhaps this is reflected in the differences in the apparel worn 
by professions. To quote the Constitution: “… the principal reason for the 
Commission consists in the fact that the Constitution of the Spanish Monarchy 
shall be a complete, well-ordered system, whose parts maintain with each other 
the most perfect relation and harmony.” 7
The idea of separating the powers of the monarchic State was based on the 
novel argument set out in the Constitution that “the experience of the centuries 
had demonstrated that there may no liberty or security, and for the same reason 
no justice nor prosperity, in a State in which the exercise of all authority is 
concentrated in a sole hand.” 8 
The desire to “promote the education of the young and to promote industry 
and commerce by protecting the inventors of new discoveries in any of these 
Figure 4.  
examples of sashes in men’s 
dress of the era. Though more 
surreptitiously than women, men 
also sought slimness and a narrow 
waist.
5-8 Fragments in italics 
from the 1812 Constitution of 
Cadiz.
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FAshiON iN CAdiZ iN 1812: MAle ANd FeMAle dRess iN The eARly ROMANTiC PeRiOd59
Figure 5.  
Men’s wear for trades and 
professions at the time. A) butcher; 
b) Cook; C) sailor; d) Market 
gardener. Note the twine elegantly 
knotted on the shirt (b) and the flies 
in the trousers to allow the wearer 
to urinate at sea. See detail.
branches” 9 is also explicitly stated in the Constitution of Cadiz. In Art. 367 we 
read: “Measures shall also be immediately taken to found a competent number of 
universities and other establishments, for the promotion of literature and the fine 
arts.” 10
In this way, the professions or trades of the time (market gardeners, butchers, 
sailors, fruit sellers, tobacco sellers, and so on) had their own distinctive 
dress. They combined the aesthetic taste and elegance of the era with popular 
common sense, and kept up to date with the fashions and trends of Goya’s age 
(fig. 5). 
Men’s shirts were usually white, and were used even in professions in which 
they could easily be stained (for example, by cooks: fig. 5; B). Linen or cotton, 
strong, resistant fabrics which could be acquired cheaply, were spun on the 
looms of the time (fig. 5; C). Complements were also very common in men’s 
dress, either for practical purposes such as the aprons worn by butchers and 
cooks (fig. 5; A and B) or for aesthetic reasons such as the sashes and caps worn 
by market gardeners (fig. 5; D). In fact, many men’s complements combined the 
two, adapting the practical and useful to the aesthetic – such as the warmers 
worn by the market gardeners to protect the hems of their trousers from thorns 
during the harvesting of fruit and vegetables (fig. 5; D) or the flies sewn into the 
trousers of sailors or fishermen (detail, fig. 5).
The fabrics used by women, and the forms and details, indicated their social 
or marital status. The dress of the apothecary’s wife, in fine taffeta fabric with 
high puff sleeves and diamond-shaped Goyaesque passementerie, was highly 
fashionable at the time. She wore a shawl of black silk satin over the shoulders 
of her dress, with bobbles at the end, and the linen petticoats of the dress give 
the visual sensation of a set of layers ordered harmoniously, like the flounce of 
a flamenco dress, which are also visible in the shawl around the neck (fig. 6; A) 
Skirts were the standard dress for women, who still did not wear trousers. They 
A.
d.
b. C.
9-10 Fragments in italics 
from the 1812 Constitution of 
Cadiz.
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wore scarves of linen or silk cloth to cover their heads and to keep warm (fig. 6; 
B and C). In the dress of the fruit-seller we see a modest version of the Spencer, 
a short fitted jacket, in this case of burgundy coloured wool, with a clasp at 
the front (fig. 6; D). Women’s complements – aprons or hair nets or hats – also 
combined the practical and the aesthetic (fig. 6).
And this is how history is written, from the first Constitution drawn up in 
Cadiz, with its fresh sea breeze, the piedra ostionera, its famous rocks, and the 
light filtering through the branches of the trees that date back a thousand years. 
The Cortes Chicas gave us the chirigotas, full of humour and wit but a vehicle 
for important social comment as well, and the friendly, knowing smile of those 
who are familiar with the eternal changes of the moon and its tides and the 
patient permanence of the water, its movements, its sound, and its aroma. 
Figure 6.  
Women’s clothes for different trades 
and professions. A) Apothecary; 
b) Tobacco-seller; C) seamstress; 
d) Fruit-seller.
A. b. C. d.
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Fashion in Cadiz in 1812: male and female dress in the early Romantic period

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