The American and French Revolutions remain emblems of the political and social upheavals taking place during the 1700s. By the century's end, fashions had changed dramatically. This metamorphosis is found most readily in the clothing of the wealthy.…
Fashionable Undress for July 1799This fashion plate is a single page that once belonged to a bound volume of materials. Originally printed in The Lady’s Monthly Museum, a periodical published in London, England from 1798 to1832, this image “showed…
Morning Dress for October 1799Mary C. Whitlock, former department chair and founder of URI’s Historic Textile and Costume Collection, found many loose fashion plates in antique shops around Massachusetts and donated them to URI’s collection. These…
Afternoon Dress for December 1799The American and French Revolutions remain emblems of the political and social upheavals taking place during the 1700s. By the century's end, fashions had changed dramatically. This metamorphosis is found most readily…
Full Dress for June 1799This fashion plate for the June 1799 issue of The Lady’s Monthly Museum is labeled “full dress”. It shows two dresses in the Neoclassical style. The 1790s was a transitional period for fashion. The chemise a la reine, first…
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…
Fashion plates are defined as “small, printed images, often hand-colored, of people wearing the latest fashions and depicted in conventional minimally narrative social contexts”, according to the Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, Volume 2, by…
Fashion plates are generalized portraits that depict the style of clothes that a dressmaker, store, or tailor can manufacture or supply. They can also show how various materials can be used to make garments. These illustrations played a substantial…
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…
[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…