FASHION PLATES



An original fashion plate



One of our assignments was to make a fashion plate based on the old 19th century ones. I finally finished mine which I based on actual garments from the Victoria & Albert Museum in England.

The dress and the jacket I found in an amazing book "Nineteenth Century Fashion in Detail" by Lucy Johnston. I highly recommend it. It has pictures of dresses, undergarments, textiles and accessories from the era, as well as trade sketches of everything.



I really wanted to draw this Dolman, but it was put into the "to hard to draw so can't be bothered trying" list.

Before I forget, this post is also a glossary of some of the terms I used that were frequently used in Harper's Bazaar from around that time.

Bodice - A garment worn over another, instead of a corset to shape the body and bust

Chenille - A type of fabric with an iridescent illusion

Ciel blue - french, Sky blue

Coiffure - An elaborate word for hairstyle

Corsage - Upper part of woman's dress. Draped fabric over a ribcage. A bunch of flowers on a costume

Dolman - A mantle with loose sleeves making a half-jacket, half-cape

Scalloped - An ornamental border of curved edges

Tablier - An apron effect on a dress

Quilted - A sewing technique where stuffing is sewn into fabric to create padding, usually with a tessellating pattern

Voided - A design is etched into the fabric and chemicals remove the pile (like Devore)

And finally a bit of history on fashion plates:

The first magazine to use this way of promoting current trends was 'The Lady's Magazine' in 1770. Accurately drawn by illustrators, plates slowly became coloured and could be mass produced by the late 1700's.

The longest running english one was 'The Queen' which ran from 1861- 1968 before 'Harper's Bazaar' bought it out, afterwards calling it 'Harper's and Queen'.

'Queen' was eventually dropped in March 2006 (2006!) because it was considered too "debutante".

And now we have Vogue, Harper's, Cosmo, Marie Claire and a whole lot more!