Napoleon's costume design
Part 2 is here.
Napoleon's outfits as a general are confusing, as some details always change from image to image. His pants are sometimes blue, sometimes white; his jacket is sometime double-breasted, sometimes single-breasted. So I've created my own headcanon style evolution for Napoleon's uniforms, one I would use if I were making a comic about him.
Even if it's a literal uniform, whose purpose is to erase individuality in an organized group, I'd like to find ways to use it to convey Napoleon's personality and situation nonetheless.
The design becomes more and more complex, signaling his increase in power and prestige; he starts with a single line of buttons, and the more buttoned down he is, the more relaxed and confident he feels.
The first one is his uniform from Toulon to the moment Thérèse Tallien gives him new cloth to make a new one. It's the simplest and he's fully buttoned up most of the time to express two main sentiments: now that he's a general, he wants to be taken seriously, especially after the Terror when he goes to Paris, when his rank and career are dangerously put in question. It helps conveys his uncertainty and uptightness in a social environment he really struggles to fit into.
The second one is used in his first Italian campaign. My reference on this is Napoleon at the Pont d'Arcole by Antoine Jean-Gros, as it's a contemporary depiction by someone who was in Italy with him at some time. (The famous episode where JosΓ©phine makes Napoleon sit on her knees to make him pose includes him as the painter in questionπ).
The colors are the same, while embroidery in this uniform has become more complex, he wears more belts and his jacket is much more open. Embroidery indicates his increased power of course, the belts have more gadgets hanging from them because he's now a very busy and resourceful man, and his sense of confidence is now at its peak hence the loose buttons.
The third one is for his Egyptian campaign. I've chosen to color his pants blue until now because they were more similar to his previous uniforms; now I switched his pants from blue to white in order to make the transition from general to consul smoother. All of his military uniforms are going to have white pants from now on as well. Also it makes sense to wear lighter colors in a very hot country.
Same goes for the red internal side of his coat. Red is fit to express both the passion behind going to the same lands conquered by Alexander the Great and the cruelty and chaos that instead marred this campaign. At the start of it he had a crisis about Josephine which must have greatly affected him and for the first time everything wasn't in his control anymore. His state of mind clearly wasn't as cool as in the previous campaign, so this red helps showing it.
The jacket is now double-breasted, a further detachment from the previous design who also makes it resemble more like a leather jacket, thus making the look even more aggressive.
The sash is also now an exotic looking one, as to be on theme with his campaign. The reference is taken from Napoleon Visiting the Plagued Victims of Jaffa by Antoine Jean-Gros.
Finally his hat changes as well. He doesn't strip it of all detail in one moment. I chose to make him get rid of the tricolor feathers when he starts to be more independent from the Directory in Italy. This signals that he's now acting as his own person, not as a pompous puppet of his government. I've not shown it in here, but he's going to get rid of any embroidery as a First Consul, making the hat more and more essential. It reflects how Napoleon himself becomes more and more an individual fighting for himself, stripping all the details which makes this hat similar to the other officials and soldiers. It is also meant to express how this individual needs no embellishment to be recognized, as he becomes an icon, a silhouette.
