The beginnings of the modern fashion system
The forerunners of the first fashion magazines were published in Paris during the reign of Louis XIV. Like their modern counterparts, they pictured seasonal fashion trends, and helped to create the fashion system as we know it today.
Joya Indermühle
Dr. Joya Indermühle is a curator at the Swiss National Museum
Flourishing French fashion press
With his patronage, the French fashion press flourished between 1672 and 1710. Hundreds of fashion images were printed in similar portrait format – black ink on white paper and a simple black border – in the Rue Saint Jacques in Paris. They would then be hand coloured if the buyers so wished. Fashion engravings could also be purchased as single plates. These were passed from person to person across national and social boundaries. It was a cost-effective way to publicise the new styles. ‘Fashion’ during this time was not limited to clothing, however. It included desirable gestures and settings, such as the Jardin des Tuileries or the latest interiors, which always featured in the background.
Part portrait, part fashion plate
u003cemu003eMercure galantu003c/emu003e – forerunner of the first fashion magazines
Donneau de Visé also launched special editions containing fashion engravings, the best-known of which were drawn by court artist Jean Berain and engraved by Jean Lepautre. These were the first pictures to appear in a regular publication, and blazed a trail for later fashion magazines that built on the combination of images and text. Then, as now, these engravings are one of the key sources of information about Baroque clothing, because the precise images are accompanied by written descriptions.
We know, therefore, that around January 1678 the headdress of choice for the fashionable lady would be the lace cornette fraisée de point de France (illustrated below). The focus was very much on the material, colour and motifs of fabrics and accessories. While the cut of clothing changed little over the years, textiles offered a way of introducing variety and innovation. The global cloth trade, complex manufacturing processes, and Lyon as a centre of silk-weaving were all major factors here.
The seasonal rhythm of fashion
Graphic reproduction provided the medium by which these trends could be conveyed from Versailles and Paris to large sections of the population throughout Europe, including Switzerland. Only a fraction of people could actually afford the fabrics that were described, but everyone could try to follow fashion as their circumstances allowed. The Paris-focused seasonal fashion system is still in place in the 21st century, but given the need for resource-efficiency and sustainable manufacturing, the time is right to examine it with a critical eye.
