Images of Fashion from the Court of Louis XIV; Fashion Illustration in the Eighteenth Century

“Under the reign of Louis XIV, fashion, in particular the manner of dress, follows the court. The French change style every day. Foreigners follow French fashion with the exception of the Spanish, who never change their style.”

— French scholar Antoine Furetière (1619–1688) in his Dictionnaire Universel

Fashion Illustration at Court in the 17th Century is part of Images of Fashion from the Court of Louis XIV, an exhibition online from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art:

“Information about the lifestyle at Versailles was disseminated by visitors, through letters and journals, and most commonly through single-sheet engravings of fashionably dressed courtiers, widely distributed with the encouragement of the crown. One hundred ninety of these engravings are collected in Recueil des modes de la cour de France (Collection of fashions from the court of France), the centerpiece of this exhibition. Such images from the late 1600s are generally accepted as the genesis of our modern concept of fashion and fashion illustration. They featured the latest apparel, worn with elegance by French courtiers, who were the celebrity trendsetters of their time.”

“To remain fashionable required a continual investment of time and resources in one’s personal dress and environment. Through engraved illustrations, news about all aspects of fashionable dress at the court of Louis XIV was avidly followed in courts and capitals throughout Europe, and French style was widely adopted.”

Also on view at LACMA is the Dress of the Year: Collection of Watercolor Drawings, The Doris Stein Research Center for Costume and Textiles

The last quarter of the eighteenth century, journals such as Heideloff’s Gallery of Fashion were issued monthly, enabling a broad-based feminine readership to stay abreast of the ever-changing fashion.”

Using such journals as her resource, Ann Frankland Lewis selected one gown each year from 1774 to 1807 and made a watercolor rendering that she titled ‘Dress of the Year.’ This personal collection of watercolor sketches provides an important historical document of late 18th to early 19th century fashion.”