Costumes et Modes d’autrefois, Vol. 4: Modes et Manières du Jour 1798-1808.

     This particular volume is titled Modes et Manières du Jour 1798-1808 and is from the 1957 edition of Collection, costumes et modes d’autrefois series.  In it, Edmond Vairel, a 20th c. french illustrator and pochoir specialist, hand copied 24 of the 52 fashion plates created by Philibert-Louis Debucourt (1755-1832). These plates were originally published by Pierre Antoine Leboux de La Mésangère, who also published the Journal des Dames et des Modes (1797-1839), one of the first fashion journals for women in the Post-Revolutionary era.  The Debucourt plates consisted of not only the graceful and stunning illustrations of popular women’s clothing styles and accessories in this period but also offered a glimpse into the artist’s perspective, under the auspices of the publisher La Mésangère, of the manners and behaviors of late 18th-c. Middle-class French women in public and private settings. The choice to feature popular fashions from 250 years ago in 1957 was not only an appreciation for the art form of Fashion Plates from the past, but it might also have reflected contemporary politics of gender roles in mid-20th century as expressed through women’s fashions.

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