Fashion and Costume Plates

In the 18^th and 19^th Century fashion printed plates to inform people about new upcoming trends in magazines, costume plates however were made to show how clothing was worn in the past and they showcase costumes from different types of national, theatrical, court and royal dress. They were originally in black and white but in the late 19^th century they started hand colouring them.

Two men began to make publications of fashion plates, Jacques Esnauts and Michel Rapilly from Paris. They produced roughly 342 figure plates and about 72 hat plates. Fashion plates were seen a lot in 1770 in The Lady’s Magazine an English monthly magazine, plates weren’t featured in every issue but were in some.

Fashion Plates and Costume plates are great collectable art pieces now days as they give a great look at how fashion was in the past and how magazines and technology has changed since then.