The grisettes were the working class girls of Paris, a phenomenon unique to the time and city. In contrast to the elaborate dress of the well-to-do, they wore the simpler grey (gris) woolen dresses which gave them their name. Unlike most women of the time, they were independent and self-supporting and were equal partners with men. Although many had relationships with men, grisettes usually lived alone. They were not prostitutes, nor were they regarded as "loose" women.

While often a part of the bohemian society so vividly depicted in Puccini's La bohème, most grisettes were financially independent, if poor, and managed their resources well. They kept themselves and their apartments and their clothes neat and clean. They worked as shop girls or in the small handicraft businesses which created elaborate luxury fashions for others. Some were artists' models. Often they were able to send some of their meager income to their even poorer relatives at home in the country. At a level above the truly poor, they were able to mix with the middle class and hope to become a member of it. Mimì in La bohème, who sewed flowers and lived in her own apartment until she met Rodolfo, is an example.

At the time of The Swallow, they were dying out as a phenomenon. However, the mythology about them grew and evidently influenced not only the later Puccini, but also the writers in Vienna. The grisettes, so admired by Count Danilo in The Merry Widow, did not accurately depict those who had actually existed fifty years before.

As well as hard-working, the grisettes were fun-loving and their favorite haunts were the numerous cafés and the public dance-hall/restaurants in Paris such as the bal Bullier (note the small ‘b' in bal) depicted in The Swallow. Others were the bal Musard also mentioned in the opera and the now more famous Moulin Rouge. They were meeting places for the middle class as well as for bohemians, students and others in search of inexpensive entertainment and the chance to meet new people. In existence from 1847-1907, bal Bullier was one of the most famous of the time, especially known because the waltz was the favored dance there. It is mentioned by many authors including Honore de Balzac, Henry Miller, Ernest Hemingway and even Booth Tarkington in his book for young people, Penrod.

There is a Bullier today, one of the cafés connected with the University and open to the public.

NOTES
Elaborate fashion: This refers to the crinoline instituted by the Empress Eugénie, supposedly to help conceal her many pregnancies. Since Paris was the fashion capital of the world, it traveled around the world and was the pre-Civil War in America choice as depicted in Gone With the Wind. With a very tight bodice and a voluminous skirt extended by a hoop and many petticoats, not only was it expensive because of the large quantity of material required, but it was hard to move in and thus wearable only by those who did not have to move much. It was almost a form of bondage for upper-class women. Thus the grey dress of the grisettes was also a symbol of their relative freedom.

Dance-hall: Another invention during the Second Empire was the can-can although the original was quite different from the stylized dance of today. Mark Twain described it thus: "The idea of it is to dance as wildly, as nosily, as furiously as you can; expose yourself as much as possible if you are a woman; and kick as high as you can, no matter which sex you belong to".

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Revised July 2009
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