A set of four fashion designs

These drawings were likely made to be printed as plates in fashion periodicals. Fashion plates were invented and began to be issued in print in the late 1770s in England and in France. At that time France was at the forefront of fashion innovation and fashion plates emerged as a way to disseminate new trends in women’s clothing that were changing with greater variation than ever before. The French Revolution put a pause to many fashion publications; it is therefore interesting that these drawings were made in the early 1790s.