Fashion Plate - Men's Fashions, 1846

Modes Parisiennes 1846

The three men illustrate changes to the silhouette taking place in the 1840s. As women’s skirts became wider, men’s silhouettes followed. Trousers became fuller, shoulders sloped, and chests swelled out like a pigeon’s. To achieve this look, the trousers were cut wider through the thigh. Gone were the foot straps of 1820s and 1830s. The central figure wears a fur-lined coat in a military-inspired style known as a Brandenburg. The two outer figures wear white cravats, which by the late 1840s were associated with evening wear.