This text uses UTF-8 (Unicode)file encoding. If the apostrophes and quotation marks in this paragraphappear as garbage, you may have an incompatible browser or unavailablefonts. First, make sure that your browser’s “character set” or “fileencoding” is set to Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change thedefault font.
For this e-text, illustrations have been placed as close as practicalto their discussion in the text. Page numbers in [brackets] show theillustration’s original position. Numbers that appear only inbrackets were full-page illustrations (Figs. 11, 20, 26, 27-28, 34).Except for these page numbers, all brackets are in the original.
Figure numbers—both in the body text and in captions—havebeen made into links only when the figure is not directly above or belowthe paragraph that discusses it. Some figures are mentioned more thanonce.
Footnote numbers marked with a supplementary asterisk * (added by thetranscriber) give translations of quoted text. Others are primarilybibliographic.
Typographical errors are shown in the text with mouse-hover popups. Only themodern (1967) material has been corrected.
65
United States National Museum Bulletin 250
Contributions from
The Museum of History and Technology
Paper 60, pages 65-92
ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY
OF THE FASHION PLATE
John L Nevinson
Smithsonian Press
Washington, D.C.
1967
66
Figure 1.—Dress of Sigmund von Herberstein for the PolishEmbassy in 1517. Over his doublet and breeches he wears a brocade gownlined with silk. From Gratae Posteritati, 1560. (Courtesy ofBritish Museum, London.)
67
John L. Nevinson
Origin and Early History
Of the Fashion Plate
A fashion plate is a costume portrait indicating a suitable styleof clothing that can be made or secured. Fashion illustration began inthe late 15th and early 16th centuries with portrait pictures that madea person’s identity known not by his individual features but rather byhis dress.
This paper, based on a lecture given in the fall of 1963 at theMetropolitan Museum, New York, traces the history of the fashion platefrom its origins to its full development in the 19th century. With theimprovements in transportation and communication, increased attentioncame to be paid to foreign fashions, accessories, and even tohairstyles. As the reading public grew, so fashion consciousnessincreased, and magazines, wholly or partly devoted to fashions,flourished and were widely read in the middle social classes; thisgrowth of fashion periodicals also is briefly described here.
The Author: John L. Nevinson,retired, was formerly with The Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Henow devotes himself to full-time research on costumes and theirhistory.