Appearances of Mourning. The widows in Toulouse area in the Eighteenth century -During the "Ancien Regime", widowhood forced women to change their appearance to wear clothes of mourning, especially during the year following the death of their husband. In Toulouse, from the end of the Seventeenth century to the end of the Eightheenth century, we can see continuities and changes that will appear more prominently in the first part of the Nineteenth century. The legal obligation for the husband's heirs to provide the widow's " habits de deuil " shows the symbolic importance of mourning dress. However, as shown in the probate inventories, social groups use different mourning dress codes. The noble women must respect a very complicated etiquette whereas the women of the working classes are too poor and we don't know exactly how they are dressed when they become widows. However some changes appear during the Eighteenth century because of the transformations of women's fashion and the role of the press like the Almanach historique de la ville de Toulouse in the 1780's.
