Browse Items (71 total)

Walking & Evening Dress for January 1818.The fashion plate was created for the January, 1818 edition of The Lady’s Monthly Museum. It depicts two women dressed intricately from head to toe. They are wearing mourning outfits to honor “Princess…

Evening Dress.Fashion plates showed women and their dressmakers what fashionable society was wearing in London and Paris (National Portrait Gallery). In 1812, a neoclassical look with tubular silhouette, empire waist, and open neckline reigned for…

This hand-colored fashion plate is identified on the page as #2567 and dated 1828. The artist is unknown. The image was probably published in Le Journal des Dames et des Modes, Costumes Parisiens. This was a French magazine founded and edited by…

Morning Dress for September 1800This fashion plate illustrates morning dress for September 1800. Both figures wear white muslin gowns that are slightly longer in the back. White was a popular color in the early 1800s. The figure on the right wears an…

Fashion plates are crucial to understanding and visualizing the dress and appearance from historical time periods. Fashion plates are small, hand-colored prints illustrating different people wearing the latest styles. They usually did not include a…

Morning Dress for December 1799This fashion plate, dated December 1799, shows morning dress. The figures wear floor-length gowns with short puffy sleeves. The woman on the right wears long blue gloves that match the bow on her headdress and the…

Evening Dresses for August, 1801Fashion plates were targeted to the elite until rotary printing made them widely available beginning in the 1820s. The artists usually crafted their drawings with a dressmaker, then the fashion plates would be engraved…

Philadelphia Fashions  April 1831, Godey’s Lady’s Book This plate represents the type of illustration Godey’s produced in its first years of publication. Labeled “Philadelphia Fashions,” it features a walking dress and an evening dress, both with the…

September 1832 Une Conversation La Mode The conversation, ostensibly about the open book in the woman’s hand, is taking place outdoors. Thus, the fashions represent ensembles suitable for walking outside or visiting friends and relatives. The woman…

Published in the Court Magazine, No. 11, May 1833 by Edward Bull 26 Holles Street Cavendish Square This fashion plate, dated 1833, displays the popular “gigot” sleeve. This sleeve style creates the illusion of a narrow waist with the exaggeration of…