CBSE Class 9 Answered

Members of the Jacobin Club, which led the French Revolution from the forefront, called themselves the ‘sans culottes’. The term literally means those ‘without knee breeches’. This was done to distinguish the Jacobins from the aristocracy who wore fashionable ‘knee breeches’. After the Revolution, people started wearing loose and comfortable clothes. The colours of France - red, blue and white - were especially used as they were seen as symbols of patriotism. Other political symbols too were incorporated into dressing, such as the red cap of liberty, long trousers and revolutionary cockade. The simplicity of clothing was in fact meant to express the ideal of equality.