Origin and Early History of the Fashion Plate Part 1

Origin and Early History of the Fashion Plate.

by John L. Nevinson.

_A fashion plate is a costume portrait indicating a suitable style of clothing that can be made or secured. Fashion ill.u.s.tration began in the late 15th and early 16th centuries with portrait pictures that made a person's ident.i.ty known not by his individual features but rather by his dress._

_This paper, based on a lecture given in the fall of 1963 at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, traces the history of the fashion plate from its origins to its full development in the 19th century. With the improvements in transportation and communication, increased attention came to be paid to foreign fashions, accessories, and even to hairstyles. As the reading public grew, so fashion consciousness increased, and magazines, wholly or partly devoted to fashions, flourished and were widely read in the middle social cla.s.ses; this growth of fashion periodicals also is briefly described here._

THE AUTHOR: _John L. Nevinson, retired, was formerly with The Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He now devotes himself to full-time research on costumes and their history._

Fashion may be defined as a general style of dress appropriate for a particular person to wear at a certain time of day, on a special occasion, or for a specific purpose.

A fashion plate is a costume portrait, that is to say, a portrait not of an individual but one which shows the sort of clothes that are being worn or that are likely to be worn. It is a generalized portrait, indicating the style of clothes that a tailor, dressmaker, or store can make or supply, or showing how different materials can be made up into clothes. A fashion plate is related to the wear of its epoch and not to the history of dress, except insofar as the dress of a historical personage may be imitated at a later date. A fashion plate is reproduced mechanically, the woodcuts and engravings of earlier dates being succeeded by lithographs and finally by the various photographic processes of our time.

This definition of a fashion plate is broader than the one adopted by Mr. Vyvyan Holland, who has written the only substantial book on the subject.[1] Mr. Holland limited his study to hand-colored fashion plates of the period from 1770 to 1899, possibly because these are most in favor with collectors. He omitted trade and advertis.e.m.e.nt plates, believing them to be primarily concerned with the history of dress.

The main functions of fashionable dress are to draw attention to the wearer, to define his social position, and to show who he is and what he is doing. Modesty, protection against the weather, and appeal to the opposite s.e.x, are, so far as fashion is concerned, subsidiary functions.

Interest in fashionable dress goes back at least to the 16th century, as is evidenced by a popular dialogue written by Alessandro Piccolomini, a relative of Pope Pius II, who subsequently became coadjutor Archbishop of Siena.[2] Piccolomini wrote under the pseudonym "Lo Stordito," and it is not clear to what extent the dialogue was sponsored by the Academy of the _Intronati_, an aristocratic, literary, and social society of which he was a member. He stated that the requirements of fashionable dress were that it be sumptuous in material, tasteful in style, and borne gracefully by the wearer. Unfortunately for the costume historian, the dialogue is not ill.u.s.trated.

It has been a.s.sumed too readily perhaps that the fashion plate dates from the late 18th century, but it is not difficult to demonstrate that it existed in all its essentials at earlier periods, even though its history may not be continuous. The beginning of the ill.u.s.tration of fashions is found in portraits, the earliest of which, either sculptured or painted, developed from images of kings and important personages.[3]

These images, unlike the _imagines_ of the Romans, made no attempt to portray the features of an individual, but made his ident.i.ty known rather by his clothes, his arms, and other indications of rank or position. The development of the stylized image into the personal portrait is well ill.u.s.trated in the diary of Jorg von Ehingen.[4] Von Ehingen, who traveled widely in Europe during the years preceding 1460, might be described as a professional jouster, who took part, usually with great success, in tournaments at the various courts. To ill.u.s.trate the account of his exploits, he had portraits drawn and painted of the different princes and kings, portraying each not with his crown and scepter but with the distinctive fashion of his court. This diary--not printed until the 19th century--was circulated in ma.n.u.script and shows, in addition to the interest in personal portraits, the growing interest in the dress of individuals.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 2.--DRESS OF SIGMUND VON HERBERSTEIN for the second emba.s.sy to Moscow, 1526. He wears a wide-sleeved gown with the collar and lining made of fine sables. His fur-lined high cap is of white felt, its brim distinguished by a band of red cloth, a mark of n.o.bility. From _Gratae Posteritati_, 1560. (_Courtesy of British Museum, London._) {ALTER A LEGATIONE A FERDINANDO IMPERATORE TVNC ARCHIDVCE MISSVS AD MOSCVM, ILLE ME TALI REMISIT VESTE}]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 3.--DRESS OF SIGMUND VON HERBERSTEIN for an emba.s.sy to the Sultan, 1541. The short gown (_Schaube_) of Italian brocade figured with black and gold has wide shoulders and padded upper sleeves. The collar, lining, and foresleeves are of similar fabric but with a dark violet ground for contrast. From _Gratae Posteritati_, 1560. (_Courtesy of British Museum, London._) {AMBO NOS ORATORES TALI VESTE AD TVRCARVM IMPERATOREM MISSI.}]

Although the earlier painters of the Italian Renaissance recorded the decorative and often exotic dress of their times, their portraits of individuals consisted in the main of medallic heads and busts. It was the German portrait painters who, to a greater extent, recorded and disseminated the knowledge of fashions. Hans Burgkmair painted himself on the occasions of his betrothal in 1497 and his marriage in 1498,[5]

and in the 16th century Hans Holbein the younger noted on his drawings the dress material and colors of the clothes worn by his sitters.[6]

Even a much less distinguished person, Matthaus Schwartz, a clerk employed by the banking firm of the Fuggers at Augsburg, had a book prepared showing the clothes he wore at what he considered to be the most important stages of his career.[7]

The first person to have such pictures printed was Sigmund von Herberstein, who deserves detailed consideration.[8] In his diplomatic career, which extended over 30 years, Sigmund von Herberstein served three Emperors--Maximilian I, Charles V, and Ferdinand I. He was a student of Russian history and an outstanding linguist, who, having learned Wendish as a boy, found no difficulty with the Polish and Russian languages. When, in his old age, he printed his memoirs, he doubtlessly aimed at giving information on how an amba.s.sador should conduct himself and to this end included ill.u.s.trations of what he actually had worn, which in many copies of the memoirs are carefully colored by hand.[9] Concerning his journey in 1517 (fig. 1), he states that "In these robes I was sent on the emba.s.sy to Sigismund King of Poland," no doubt the fashion for the formal dress of an envoy. On his first emba.s.sy to the Grand Duke of Moscow in 1517 he was presented with a Russian fur-lined robe, but on his second emba.s.sy in 1526, he received a greater distinction (fig. 2): "Having been sent a second time by the Emperor Ferdinand then Archduke to Moscow, the Grand Duke bestowed upon me these robes." This dress was far more sumptuous than the formal black velvet gown which he normally wore for emba.s.sies to the Spanish and other courts.

By 1541 there was a change in fashion (fig. 3). Von Herberstein wrote: "We two orators were sent in this dress to the Turkish Emperor," and it was in this dress that von Herberstein, suffering perhaps from arthritis, complained of having great difficulty in bowing low enough to kiss the hand of the seated Sultan. The imperial fashion of breeches and hose might have seemed indelicate to Suleiman "the Magnificant," who gave the amba.s.sadors other robes (fig. 4): "The Emperor of the Turks presented us also with these robes." The long-gowned costume shown here should have been completed by a turban, but von Herberstein evidently would not allow himself to be depicted in this.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 4.--SIGMUND VON HERBERSTEIN IN ROBES presented to amba.s.sadors by the Sultan, 1541. The Turkish gown of yellow silk figured with black, with some of the medallions outlined in blue, has long sleeves that hide the hands. The inner robe is of red silk figured with yellow and gathered with a blue sash. From _Gratae Posteritati_, 1560. (_Courtesy of British Museum, London_.) {TVRCARVM IMPERATOR NOS QVOQVE VESTIBVS DONAVIT.}]

Von Herberstein seems to have kept his robes in his palace in Vienna, along with his collection of Russian and oriental weapons, ill.u.s.trated in his history of Russia:[10] these, and stuffed specimens of Aurochs, then almost extinct, and European bison, formed the first museum of costume and natural history on record.

With the development of ceremonial, some of the princely courts of Germany had ill.u.s.trations prepared of what should be worn by the officials of different grades (fig. 5). Several copies of each of these _Hofkleiderbucher_--books giving rules or standards for correct court dress--were no doubt issued, but none seems to have been printed for the general information of the public. The first printed book on tailoring, by Juan de Alcega, was published in 1588 and includes diagrams showing how to cut ceremonial robes from the roll of cloth,[11] but there are no ill.u.s.trations of what the completed garments should look like.

The history of fashion plates, therefore, is to be followed in less specialized works. In the 16th century, with the improvement of communications and the continuation of voyages of discovery, great interest developed in the costume and way of life of other nations. It is in this connection that the word "fashion" was first used in its modern sense. In an address to King Henry VIII, a pet.i.tioner in 1529, deploring the sinfulness of the people of England, wrote:[12]

The pryncypall cause [of sin] is their costly apparell and specially their manyfolde and divers changes of fa.s.shyons which the men and specially the women must weare uppon both hedde and bodye: sometyme cappe, sometyme hoode, now the French fa.s.shyon now the Spanyshe fa.s.shyon and then the Italyan fa.s.shyon and the Myllen [Milan]

fa.s.shyon, so that there is noo ende of consuminge of substance . . . .

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 5.--LEAF FROM A BOOK of court costumes showing back and front view of a gentleman's dress. German, second half of the 16th century. (_Courtesy of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam._)]

Foreign fashions were being imitated by English ladies. Inventories[13]

in the Public Record Office in London show that the English queens had robes cut in Spanish, Milanese, or French styles. As for men, it was said that they could not make up their minds what to wear, and a popular caricature shows an Englishman standing naked with a roll of cloth under his arm and a pair of tailor's shears in his hand, saying:[14]

I am an English man, and naked I stand here, Musyng in my mynde what raiment I shal were, For now I wyll were thys, and now I wyll were that; Now I wyll were I cannot tel what.

London, however, was not a fashion center, and the first book on the fashions of nations was printed in Paris in 1562.[15] In his introduction to the book Francois Deserpz moralized:[16]

. . . noz vieux predecesseurs . . . ont este plus curieux de sumptueuse vesture que de rare vertu . . . car tout ainsi qu'on cognoist le Moyne au froc, le Fol au chaperon, & le Soldat aux armes, ainsi se cognoist l'homme sage a l'habit non excessif.

[Footnote 16: Translated, this reads: ". . . our predecessors of old . . . were more careful about sumptuous dress than rare virtue . . . for as the monk was recognized by his frock, the jester by his cap, and the soldier by his arms, so the wise man was known by his moderate habit."]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 6.--PORTRAIT of an English lady. From _Recueil de la diversite des habits_, 1567 ed. (_Courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum, London._) {caption at end}]

Acknowledgments were made to the late Captain Roberval and to an unnamed Portuguese, but it is not known which of them contributed the portrait of the English lady (fig. 6). Although she is said to be distinguishable by her square bonnet, it is hard to find the style paralleled in any other picture. The huge slashes on the bodice of her gown surely are exaggerated, as is the smallness of the m.u.f.f which hangs by a cord from her waist. On the other hand, Joris Hoefnagel copied and used the portrait as one of a group of citizens standing in the foreground of Hogenberg's 1574 plan of London,[17] so the figure must have been regarded as approximately accurate.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 7.--DRESS OF A FRENCH WOMAN (front view) with a tight-sleeved bodice through the cuts of which the lining is drawn out in puffs. From _Omnium gentium habitus_ . . . , 1563 ed.

(_Courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum, London._)]

Much more convincing as evidence of fashions are the etchings by Aeneas Vico that appear in Bertelli's book on the costumes of the peoples, published in Venice in 1563.[18] The French woman shown in figure 7 clearly ill.u.s.trates a fashion which is familiar enough in portraits. Of particular interest is the back view (fig. 8) showing her petticoat.

This type of petticoat was popular in Spain in the late 15th century,[19] but was not adopted in France, Italy, and England until the second half of the 16th century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 8.--DRESS OF A FRENCH WOMAN (back view) showing the manner in which the bodice was laced and the hood fell at the back. The skirt is raised, revealing the farthingale petticoat with the roll at its hem which contained cane stiffening (_verdugo_). From _Omnium gentium habitus_ . . . , 1563 ed.

(_Courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum, London._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 9.--DRESS OF A n.o.bLEWOMAN of Mantua. From Vecellio, _De gli habiti antichi e moderni_, 1590. (_Courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum, London._) {DONZELLA n.o.bILE ORNATA.}]

The next development in the history of the fashion plate is found in the costume books by Cesare Vecellio, published in Venice in 1590 and 1598.[20] Vecellio, a member of the same family as t.i.tian, showed the costume of the different ranks of society in the various Italian cities and states, in the other countries of Europe, and indeed in the known world; he also depicted a number of antique and old-fashioned dresses.

Unfortunately, the ill.u.s.trations (fig. 9) by Christoph Krieger, whose name was Italianized as Guerra, are not as good as Vico's, and Krieger died before the series was complete. But Vecellio took great pains to secure accurate and up-to-date information about fashions, and he received letters and drawings from his friends in various cities of Italy. Master Erasmo Falte of Parma sent him particulars of the dress of the d.u.c.h.ess of Parma, together with a sketch by a good local painter, which Vecellio describes and adds:[21]

Sotto costumano il verducato, overo faldiglia, qual tien con arte la sottana larga a modo di campana, che torna molto commodo al caminare, danzare: & hora si costumano per tutta l'Italia questa sopra detta faldiglia.

[Footnote 21: Translated, this reads: "Underneath, the habit of the ladies [who imitate the d.u.c.h.ess] is to wear the farthingale or pleated frock, which skillfully holds the petticoat out wide like a bell. This fashion is extremely convenient for walking or dancing, and nowadays, ladies throughout all Italy wear this pleated frock mentioned above." (1590 ed., folio 187.a.)]

Thus, the bell-shaped farthingale (fig. 8) had by 1590 become the general wear of the upper cla.s.ses in Italy, as it was already in Spain, France, and England.

Of even greater interest is the evidence of Vecellio's relations with a fashion house in Venice. In his general account of the housedresses of the n.o.ble ladies of his time, he mentions the rich modern materials and especially silk brocades of four and even of six colors, admirably woven:[22]

Di queste opere si belle e stato in Venetia auttore M. Bartholomeo Bontempele dal Calice, il quale alle volte con le mostre, ch' egli fa di questi drappi de' quali lui e stato inventore, mostra la grandezza dell'ingegno suo, la quale e accompagnata da una incomparabile liberalita, e bonta, per ilche e molto amato dalla n.o.bilta Venetiana, & da molti Principi d'Italia & in specie dal Serenissimo Duca di Mantova. Nella sua b.u.t.tiga dove molti Signori e Principi mandano a fornirsi, & fino al serraglio del Gran Turco, si veggono broccati a opera di tutte le sorte d'oro e di argento.

[Footnote 22: Translated, this reads: "The originator of these beautiful fabrics in Venice is Master Bartholomew Bontempele at the sign of the 'Chalice.' From time to time at exhibitions he makes of these materials he has created, he shows the greatness of his intellect, which is accompanied by an incomparable generosity and kindness for which he is greatly loved by the Venetian n.o.bility, by many princes of Italy, and in particular by his Serene Highness the Duke of Mantua. In his store, to which many gentlemen and princes send orders, even the Seraglio of the Grand Turk, are to be seen brocades worked in all manners of gold and silver." (1590 ed., folio 139.)]

It may seem strange that within 20 years of the Battle of Lepanto (1571) Venetian fabrics were exported from Bontempele's sign of "The Chalice"

to Constantinople to compete with the noted velvets of Brusa. After describing the clothes of the best dressed merchants, Vecellio does not hesitate to mention his friends Master Paolo, spice merchant and vendor of the celebrated _Theriakon_ (known in England as Venice treacle), of the sign of "The Ostrich," and Bernadino Pillotto, seller of pictures and other ornaments.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 10.--FASHION PLATE depicting fanciful hair style of a lady from Ferrara, by Christoph Krieger. From _Varie acconciature di teste_, ca. 1590. (_Courtesy of Victoria & Albert Museum, London._) {FERARESE / AVDACE}]

At this time there were also woodcuts ill.u.s.trating hairstyles. The exact date of Christoph Krieger's _Varie Acconciature di Teste_ (fig. 10) is not known. While Vecellio had remarked that the Venetian ladies were imitating the G.o.ddess Diana and surmounting their tresses with two little curls like horns, Krieger made ill.u.s.trations that were even more fanciful. Each lady bears the name of a city and a distinguishing quality or temperament, but there is no more reason to connect the styles with local fashions than to believe that the ladies of Ferrara were bold or those of Todi capricious.