Browse Items (71 total)

Paris Fashions for the Month of March 1806John Bell (1745-1831) began publishing La Belle Assemblée in London in 1806. The fashion images were engraved on copper plates and then printed on paper, which gave them the name “fashion plates”. Initially…

London Fashions for May, 1806 Full Dress, Walking Dresses, Morning DressLa Belle Assemblée, or Bells Court and Fashionable Magazine was published in London from 1806 to 1868 (Harper 2020). It was founded by John Bell, a magazine publisher and major…

[left] A Full Dress, the Boxborough Jacket; Engraven by favor of Her Grace from the Original. [right] A New Spencer Walking Dress with the Incognito Hat, as worn by Miss Duncan in the New Opera.This fashion plate was engraved exclusively for John…

Full & Half Full Dresses for AprilFashion plate: Le Beau Monde, or Literary and Fashionable Magazine, April, 1808 (vol. 3, no. 20)This image appeared in Le Beau monde, or Literary and fashionable magazine in 1808, the third year of its…

Fashionable Spring Walking DressesFashion plates are “tiny yet mighty” in how they offer a glimpse into past fashion. La Belle Assemblée was one of the premier publications for London society women that ran from 1806 to 1832. This fashion plate from…

Morning Walking DressesThis fashion plate was engraved for John Bell (1745-1831), who published it in his magazine, La Belle Assemblée, in August 1808. It features two women in lightweight walking dresses. The one on the left is wearing a spencer…

This fashion plate is labeled “London Dresses for October. Published by Vernor Hood and Sharpe, Oct. 1, 1808.” During this period high-waisted Empire dresses were popular. The waistline ends just below the bust and the trim at the hem is becoming…

London full DressThis fashion plate was printed for John Bell’s Le Belle Assemblée in November 1808. It depicts two women in evening dresses. The same print is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London, and it includes the…

The process for producing a fashion plate began with an artist, who would create the design with pencil and watercolor, elaborating as many details as possible. The drawing was then given to the engraver to print, who used sharp tools to engrave…

Fashion plates in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries showed what dressmakers were making in London and Paris. Every few years a new waistline or sleeve appeared in Paris, and fashion plates made it easy to keep up with the latest…