Fashion plates are images made specifically to illustrate to people types of clothes that they should wear to keep up to date with fashions; they also give instructions or guidance on whether the clothing shown would suit the taste and style of the individual wearer. They evolved in the 18th century in Europe and have their origin in 16th-century Trachtenbücher (Ger.: ‘clothing books’), which in turn grew out of a desire for more knowledge about costume and the development of printing. For the first time such books gathered together and illustrated information about costume, jewellery and many new decorative motifs, such as embroidery. They declined during the 19th and 20th centuries when they were superseded by photography. While text was minimal, the illustrations they contained were a record of what was being worn, with particular reference to nationality and rank. The most important of the costume books for the history of costume is considered to be Cesare Vecellio’s De gli habiti antichi et moderni di diverse parti del mondo (Venice, 1590). It was the first of the illustrated costume books to have meticulously written descriptions to accompany 500 carefully drawn woodcuts, and it covers Europe, Africa, Asia and America. Particularly significant are the records of textiles made and sold by merchant drapers, who plied their trade at, for example, the Italian courts, and who, therefore, would have been au fait with current tastes. Vecellio was a cousin of Titian, to whom his costume book was attributed for two centuries, a wonderful testament to Vecellio’s artistic and historical achievement.

• costume books
  • Dress, §I, 4: Costume in art
  • Vecellio: (3) Cesare Vecellio