Browse Items (71 total)

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…

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…

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…

Carriage DressThis fashion plate depicts an ensemble suitable for riding in a carriage, which was a major form of transportation in the early nineteenth century. It has a high collar, long sleeves, and a sizeable red shawl to keep the wearer warm.…

Evening Dress, Lady’s Magazine, November, 1814 Fashion plates were the portal to the fashion world for someone who wanted to know the latest styles in 1814. The young woman is seated on a chair with her feet on a footrest. She is bent over slightly,…

Fashion plates are records of fashion from the eighteenth century through the early twentieth centuries. These printed and hand-colored images were produced to show what was fashionable at the time. As part of the earliest magazines, fashion…

Riding DressFashion plates are important to historic fashion studies because they show the garment as it was meant to be worn. This fashion plate is from Lady’s Magazine or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex, June 1817; the magazine ran from…

Full Dress for the Opera, Theatre &cThis fashion plate is captioned “Full Dress for the Opera, Theatre.” It was published in March 1815 in La Belle Assemblée, one of London’s most important women’s magazines of the early nineteenth century. The…

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…

The beginning of the nineteenth century featured a radical turn in fashion with the introduction of neoclassical styles. Simplified white chemises with empire waistlines dominated the streets of London, where this fashion plate was printed. Marie…