While the fashion
term macaroni may not be recognizable to
most people today, you've probably heard
of it if you've ever sung "Yankee Doodle." Many assume the odd lyric,
"stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni,"
is referring to pasta, but the song actually refers
to this strange, old trend. The rich who embraced
the macaroni trend used fashion to show off
their wealth in an attempt to retain their status. Unfortunately, for
them, society's views about money and social status
limited the trend's lifespan, and it faded out after
continued ridicule. As a result, macaroni
fashion is remembered today primarily as a joke. You look like a bad joke. Today, we're going
to take a look at why macaroni fashion
was so ridiculous, we still make fun of
it centuries later. But before we get started, be
sure to subscribe to the Weird History channel, and let
us know in the comments below what other historical,
fashion-related topics you would like to hear about. OK, let's bite into some
delicious, cheesy macaroni fashion. Rich people living to show
off their wealthy lifestyle goes back to the dawn
of human civilization, and the macaronis
embraced this custom. And through their sense
of fashion and behavior, they attempted to craft
an image that would display their societal value. For members of the
lower class, however, the image the macaronis created
was an unattainable goal, as they simply couldn't
afford to pull off the look. Macaronis knew this, and instead
of being classy about it, they took every opportunity to
dump their carefully curated images in the faces of the
poor by making their outfits as elaborate as possible. Their giant wigs
and fancy clothing established them as
an exclusive group, while reminding the impoverished
that they would never be able to know such
luxury or elite status. Europeans had used wigs to
cover baldness and deter lice since the 16th century,
but macaroni followers exaggerated those wigs
to ridiculous heights. Some men even wore tiny hats
on top of their giant wigs, and many styles featured
curls or pigtails flowing down the sides or back. Macaroni wigs were
often compared to the wigs worn by
women, which were decorated with so much
ornamentation people joked. The wearers would have
to sit on the floor in order to fit inside
their carriages. Others mocked the macaroni wigs
through comic illustrations that depicted towering
hairdos, which sometimes needed help to be held upright. Because these wigs
were, obviously, more ornamental than practical,
they gave their wearers an air of arrogance. You'd think that
would be a bad thing, but the wealthy embraced it
when comparing themselves to the lower classes, just
rich jerks being rich jerks. Macaroni adopters needed to make
a statement wherever they went, and to do that,
they typically wore striped stockings, tight-fitting
pants, and long-tailed coats that hug the body. They embraced fancy, expensive
materials like lace and silk, and they experimented
with the use of bright colors, which wasn't
really a thing at the time. These men also used excessive
powder on their faces and carried fancy
walking sticks, not because they needed
any help walking, it was because they thought
it looked pretty sweet. On their feet, the men more
stylish, yet impractical footwear known as
Winklepicker shoes. Decorated with buckles and
shaped to have pointed toes, these shoes were considered
stylish, despite the fact, they made walking
pretty difficult. Maybe they did need
that walking stick. While many people of the era
thought the look was just plain silly, the
style was intended to show off the wearer's
embrace of decadence and his willingness
and resources to adopt artificiality
for the sake of fashion. Oh, what fashionable
foot bindings. Macaroni culture wasn't
just a fashion style, it was a way of life. Macaronis had money and
enjoyed showing it off by spending much of their
time in fashionable locations and partaking in
fashionable activities. How fashionable. Card games and gambling
became popular, especially when the
activities took place in the most popular
hot spots around town. For example, the masquerade
balls held at London's pantheon were a popular gathering
spot for macaronis, since they could mingle
with the other members of English high
society, who also attended the lavish events. Because they had
money and wanted to use it as proof
of their elitism, macaronis deliberately
led carefree lives that mirrored their
highfalutin fashion sense. While macaroni fashion may have
begun as a way for the elite to visually distinguish
themselves from the lower classes, the trend didn't remain
limited to the upper class for long. However, as the style
spread to other classes, people increasingly
frowned upon it. Eventually, like
most trends that celebrate uniqueness but then
become adopted by the masses, the macaroni fad got played out. Before its demise, however,
a wide variety of people had already adopted the trend. This led to subsections
of the style in virtually every class and
profession throughout Europe. Macaroni dancing
masters emerged, as did macaroni parsons, turf
macaronis, and grub street macaronis, which sounds
like a Zydeco cover band. The variety of
macaroni followers actually sped up
the trend's demise since the variety of
macaronis in Europe became more comical
than their outfits. Like with modern
fads and trends, it didn't take
long for the media to begin making
references to macaronis, and an entire industry
of publications devoted themselves to
covering the trend. Some of these magazines were
Macaroni Jester, Pantheon of Wit, Savoir-Vivre,
Theatrical Magazine, and of course, our favorite,
Monthly Intelligence of the Fashions and Diversions. Unfortunately for the macaronis,
many of these publications used their platform like
modern late night hosts and just made fun of the trend. Writers created sarcastic
jokes, and artists drew pictures that mocked the macaronis. Although anti-macaroni
publications didn't last long and rarely made
it past one issue, articles making fun
of macaronis also appeared in established
magazines, some of which included stories about
lady friends of macaronis, any of whom could be
labeled a macaroness. Satire has always been good
business for creatives, and entire industries blossomed
to make fun of macaronis. Cartoonists and
caricature artists jumped at the opportunity,
especially given that the macaroni
style provided visuals ripe for comical exaggeration. In fact, not only did cartoons
insulting the macaronis appear in magazines
and newspapers, but they became available
for anyone to buy as a print. Cartoonists like Mary
Darly even made a career out of ridiculing the macaronis. Darly actually created so many
popular anti-macaroni images, people began calling her London
shop, the Macaroni Print Shop. It's actually believed
macaroni caricatures were the first cartoons to
comment on society to such a wide audience. There was, of course, no
photography at the time, so these caricatures
became the go-to reference of the macaroni trend, despite
their great exaggeration. Some historians
have even suggested that the fashion wasn't as
strange as the cartoon show, but since there aren't really
any other visual references of the trend, the
cartoon images are what became fixed in people's minds. The macaroni trend
was mostly mocked because it was
associated with the rich and specifically,
the pompous rich. However, it also
increasingly conflicted with the changing
ideas of masculinity. Most men had begun embracing
more modest styles, free of extravagant decoration. Indeed, the towering
wigs and fancy clothing could hardly be
more different than the plainly-colored simple
fabrics most men of the period wore. However, the
macaronis of the 1770s embraced the idea of wearing
more feminine clothing, and the trend became even
more lavishly decorated and effeminate. Whether people associated
the style with homosexuality is now debated by
historians, but many believe the trend challenged
gender norms in fashion. So where did it all start? Well, beginning in
the 17th century, young men embarked on
trips across Europe in order to sample the
cultures of other countries. These trips came to be
known as grand tours and could last anywhere from
a few months to a few years. Members of the upper
class were obviously more likely to take these tours
since they could afford the travel expenses
and the servants to carry their belongings. The grand tour experience was
usually undertaken by men, but women who had
chaperones sometimes traveled in a similar manner. Learning about and
experiencing the new cultures exposed the travelers to
fashion, music, food, and art from other countries. Like many people
throughout history, some young men liked what
they saw enough to copy it, especially the fashions they
witnessed in Italy and France. It was these men and their
love of foreign fashions who would sow the seeds of what
eventually became macaroni, not that macaroni grown from
seed, but you know what I mean. Towards the end of the
1770s, people's values began to change, and
they embraced hard work over inheriting their wealth. Clothing also changed as people
turned to practical fabrics like wool and less
flashy colors. This made the macaronis
stand out even more, as they refused to let go of
their fancy pants and wigs. They insisted on using
materials like silk and lace in their wardrobe, both
for their association with the upper class and
the fact the materials had to be imported. Not only did these
fabrics use materials from other countries,
such as silk from China, but they were also woven
into unusual fabric in foreign countries
like Italy and France. These imported fabrics
gave the macaronis the unique appearance they
wanted since only the elite had access to them, as well as
enough money to purchase them. According to the famous
rhyme, "Yankee Doodle stuck a feather in his cap
and called it macaroni," the words can be confusing
because most people, like me, never could understand how a
feather could look like pasta, but to the enlightened,
as you are now, we can see this actually refers
to the macaroni fashion trend. The rhyme originated
with the British, who wrote it as a
ridicule of Americans, whom they saw as simpletons
that believed they could just stick a feather in their
hats and pass themselves off as macaronis. However, American
Revolutionary soldiers decided to embrace the put
down and redefine its meaning, eventually elevating
it to an anthem, meant to inspire patriotism. I'm rubber, and you're glue. This worked so well,
American children still learn "Yankee
Doodle" to this very day. Take that, England. The macaroni is a tasty
pasta versus the macaroni is a tasteless fashion, use of
the word macaroni is confusing. What gives? Well, back in the 1700s
macaroni was not the food item now commonly associated with
poor college students, rather, it was a pasta
exclusive to Italy and little known
outside of the country. During their grand tours, young
men traveling through Italy experienced the
dish and enjoyed it so greatly, they brought
it back home with them. The name became associated with
a style sometime in the 1760s, since the young men who adopted
the dress and lifestyle were also fans of the
pasta and thought it was the epitome of good taste. In 1772, Town And
Country Magazine explained the
association with macaroni writing, "Italians
consider this as the summum bonum of all good
eating, so they figuratively call
everything they think elegant and uncommon macaroni. There you go. Now you know, and I'm hungry. So what do you think,
macaroni fashion, cheesy or cheese-tastic. Let us know in the comments
below, and while you're at it, check out some of these other
videos from our Weird History.
