Revue de la Mode, Gazette de la Famille, dimanche 18 janvier 1880, 9e année, No. 420: Gants de la Parfumerie Ninon (...) 1880

E. Cheffer created this print, entitled “Revue de la Mode, Gazette de la Famille” in 1880, using engraving and stipple techniques with color printing. This was an era when such prints served as vital communication about style and the fashion industry. The texture and weight of the gowns are conveyed through careful arrangements of line and color; notice how the stippling creates tonal variation. This allowed the readers of “Revue de la Mode” to imagine how the dresses would appear in real life. The making of these garments was painstaking. The fabrics would have been woven, dyed, cut, and sewn, all involving extensive labor and skill. These fashion plates fueled a burgeoning consumer culture, even as they obscured the social realities of production. Paying close attention to materials and the processes that shape them allows us to consider the complex economic systems that underpin even the most apparently frivolous images. It challenges any hierarchy separating the fashion plate from the so-called higher arts.