La Mode, 9 novembre 1839 : Chapeau de velours de Me Lassall (...) 1839

Editor: So, this print, "La Mode, 9 novembre 1839," appears to be a fashion plate from 1839. It's a lithograph, and there's something about the almost assembly-line feel to fashion illustrations of this period that I find so intriguing. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Consider the lithograph itself, a medium born from industrial processes. The print facilitated the widespread distribution of fashion ideals. Note the detail given to the depiction of velvet, fur, and even the cheaper textiles; it speaks to the increasing availability and consumer desire that were shaping Parisian society. Editor: Right! And seeing it in print suggests that access to these styles of clothing, though probably not exactly this quality, was starting to become accessible to more people, wasn't it? Curator: Exactly. The mechanization inherent in printmaking mirrored and fueled the mechanization within the textile industry itself. Look at the address lines listed - Paris, London, Leipzig. Fashion wasn't just local; its manufacture and consumption was becoming internationally connected through developing capitalist markets and nascent globalization. Consider also how many of these illustrations would have been needed, and who were the uncredited labourers who did the engraving and the colouring? Editor: That’s a perspective I hadn’t considered before. So, beyond just being pretty pictures of clothes, these plates reflect the labour involved in their creation and distribution and reveal international networks of material production. Curator: Precisely. And how these modes of production influence our perception of "art" versus "craft." It compels us to examine whose labor is valued and whose is erased in art history. Editor: I see now! Thank you so much; that really opens up a different understanding. It is so interesting to look beyond just the fashion and see the layers of social and material context. Curator: It's about seeing the thread of material conditions that runs through the fabric of art itself.