Eighteenth Century French Fashion Plates in Full Color by Stella Blum (1982, Paperback)

"Eighteenth Century French Fashion Plates in Full Color", 64 engravings from the "Galerie des Modes", 1778-1787. This is a softcover Dover Book, dated 1982. The book was edited by Stella Blum, who was curator of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the time. The book contains a bibliographical note; a 2 page introduction by Ms. Blum; 4 pages entitled "List of Plates" that includes a brief description of each plate; a 3 page glossary; and the 64 color plates. The plates are really amazing! If you are ever tempted to complain about how long it takes you to get ready in the morning...just check this out! These 18th century ladies went to unbelievable lengths in the name of fashion. Most of these plates show women's attire, but there are quite a few that show women & men together and some that also show just men. Each plate has a French description with English translation.

I have been amazed at how affordable this book is to purchase online. It is so worth it!

The color plates in this book are in the public domain as the copyright has expired, so if you need copyright-free reference material of this type, the book is excellent for that. (Keep in mind that the accompanying text by Stella Blum is copyrighted though.)

This is a lovely book and I think it is well worth owning!