Galerie des modes et costumes français (engraved fashion plates)
Galerie des modes et costumes français (láminas de moda grabadas)
- Date
- 1778 · confidence medium
- Place
- Paris, Île-de-France, France
- Credited to
- Esnauts and Rapilly, Parisian publishers
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A series of colour-engraved plates of fashionable dress published in instalments in Paris from 1778. It established the fashion plate as a way of spreading new styles, before fashion magazines proper.
Priority for the 'first fashion publication' is debated: earlier came illustrated almanacs (Mercure galant, 1672) and English magazines; Le Cabinet des Modes (1785) is sometimes cited as the first magazine. Date of the first series of plates.
What it led to
- 19th-century fashion press (Le Cabinet des Modes, Journal des Dames)
- spread of Parisian fashion across Europe and the Americas
- professionalisation of fashion illustration