Fashion on Display
A new exhibition in the third floor display cases outside Special Collections looks at changes in fashion illustration and printing technology. The Color of Fashion: Advances in Printing and Fashion Plates, 1770s-1930s will be on display throughout the fall semester.
An excerpt from the introduction to the exhibition:
For more than 200 years, fashion has been “plated” in books and magazines with illustrations that trace styles, trends, and fads in costume. Hence the “fashion plate” – a person who tries to measure up to the illustrations of the day.
Changes in fashion often reflect and react directly to changes occurring in society. The way they have been portrayed in print has also responded to changes in printing technology: fashion “plating” has always been on the leading edge of graphic design and press development and has helped drive innovation in color printing.
