Victorian Prints

First-generation digital scan of an engraved fashion plate (in full color) from the January 1860 issue of Godey's Lady's Book in my personal collection. The description from the book reads as follows: The Bride's Toilet. -- Gored dress of thick white silk, sloped to the hips, the only ornament being flat bows of white satin ribbon, fastened by pearl buckles in the centre; these extend from the throat to the hem of the skirt. Veil of thulle. Wreath, mounted in the coronet form, of fine flowers, jessamine, and rose-buds. From left to right: Fig. 1. -- Dress of queen's purple moire; the skirt full and plain, ornamented by a tablier trimmed of black Chantilly lace, placed spirally on each side of the front breadth, and following the opening of the corsage around the throat. From the waist line to the hem of the skirt is placed a row of rosettes of silk and lace. Sleeves, quite tight at the shoulder, and widening a little to the parement or turned back cuff. Underslee

A fashion illustration from my collection of Peterson's Magazine , July 1857 issue. From the magazine, the description of the dresses are: On the left, a morning dress of white cambric, trimmed in front in the apron style with insertions and heavy worked rufflings. The corsage is made with a basque and ornamented to correspond with the skirt. On the right, a dinner dress of white muslin, trimmed with three flounces richly embroidered. Corsage high. A small mantle of white muslin, embroidered. All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License . Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Antique fashion illustration from the December 1901 issue of The Delineator . The magazine says: " On the left , charming simplicity marks this gown, for which black crêpe de Chine was chosen in combination with jetted lace, rowa of ribbons of graduated widths and narrow ruffles of the crêpe de Chine. The waist is in low, rounding outline at the top, a short distance from which a ruffle of the material is arranged so that with the jetted lace it suggests a bertha. A closing is made at the back with small buttons, and the front blouses with becoming fulness [sic]. The cap sleeves are circularly shaped, and a ribbon belt describes the dip. An inverted box-plait takes up the fulness at the back of the five-gored skirt, and a graduated, circular flounce is added. Several narrow ruffles arranged on the flounce near the bottom give a fluffy effect. White embroidered mousseline de soie will evolve a handsome evening gown, with medallion of black lace on white-edged black chiffon. A sa

A Victorian lady dressed in a mantelet made of vicuña , considered the world's rarest fabric , so luxurious that the Wall Street Journal says coming in contact with it might cause you to "...for a moment, think seriously about blowing your children's college funds." Originally published in an 1873 issue of La Mode Illustrée . All digitized work by Victorian Trends.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License . Free for personal use only. Please link back to VictorianTrends.com as your source when sharing or publishing.

Okay, I've bought huge lots of antique books from eBay before but this is the... biggest one ever! 20, yes, TWENTY bound volumes of full-year La Mode Illustrée magazines ranging from 1873 to 1903 - the originals, not reproductions . These books are huge, measuring approximately 15" x 11" bound - over 120 pounds of books that were shipped to me all the way from a dealer in Ireland! Swoon. With gorgeous illustrations of Victorian and Edwardian fashion on almost every single page , my rough calculation is that I have at least 25,000 images on my hands! What am I going to do with these? I haven't quite decided yet. I'm not even sure where to begin digitizing! As problems go, this is a very nice one to have, don't you think? :)