"The images featured in Fashion Plates: 150 Years of Style are part of an extensive collection of such plates held by Special Collections & College Archives, a unit of the Gladys Marcus Library at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), New York"--Preface.

Superb, meticulously reproduced illustrations from rare source provide authentic views of Victorian dresses, gowns, coats, accessories. A must for costume designers, cultural historians, fashion enthusiasts. Introduction. Captions.

DIVSuperb, meticulously reproduced illustrations from rare source provide authentic views of Victorian dresses, gowns, coats, accessories. A must for costume designers, cultural historians, fashion enthusiasts. Introduction. Captions. /div

Stitching La Mode: Patterns and Dressmaking from Fashion Plates of 1785-1795 brings to life women’s unique and extravagant fashions of 1785-1795 in a beautifully illustrated and accessible way. The book consists of scaled patterns directly based on original French, German and English fashion plates drafted according to period-accurate shapes. The patterns encompass the full look presented in each fashion plate from garments to accessories. These are accompanied by a color image of the corresponding fashion plate, straightforward, illustrated directions for recreating the outfits, information on the material used and modelled reproductions of each plate to demonstrate what they would look like in "real life". The book focuses on unique styles often seen in fashion plates but rarely – if ever – patterned before, making this a fresh and exciting yet historically accurate take on late eighteenth-century fashion. Stitching La Mode significantly expands the understanding of transitional fashions from the late eighteenth century with concrete, physical examples of styles, perfectly suited for costume technicians and makers, costume historians and hobby costumers and re-enactors.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The Galerie des Modes has been called the "most beautiful collection in existence on the fashions of the 18th century." Here are 64 of the finest plates, reproduced by costume historian Stella Blum.