Versailles Laurens
Laurens was in Versailles in 1781 with Thomas Paine to help Benjamin Franklin in obtaining loans from France. (See: John Laurens timeline)
Bonus Laurens dressed as a macaroni - a term referring to rich young men dressing "pretty" and calling themselves fashionable. The green outfit is from this exhibition, which also explains this style of dress and its historical context. Macaronis are infamously ridiculed in satirical art. The term can have a derogatory connotation, but macaronis did challenge gender norms / masculinity. You can see this video about it too!
This is dedicated to @my-deer-friend - who requested Versailles Laurens for an art trade! Funny enough, @my-deer-friend discovered that Laurens was most likely wearing his blue and buff uniform while he was in Versailles. I wonder if Laurens would've been hesitant to dress like a macaroni - it is so ostentatious and essentially a status symbol, which seems very un-American (and tone deaf, considering the revolution). And I figure he'd be afraid of being seen as fruity lmao.
Meanwhile, Benjamin Franklin famously did wear that plain brown suit in Paris.
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He looks absolutely gorgeous. You've outdone yourself!
The evidence for Laurens' Versailles dress comes from Major William Jackson, aka world's first self-professed Laurens Girlie™️.
"No matter," said [Laurens] "let us go to the inn and dress for Court, where the act must finish." (The Court was at this time in mourning for the Empress Queen, Maria Theresa, the Queen's mother - but we were indulged in wearing our uniform, with crapes on our arms and swords.)
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The "crapes" were strips of fine black cloth, tied around the left arm and the hilt of the sword. Most everyone else in Versailles would have been dressed like this:
Courtly mourning attire, 1781
