Figure 1.--This edition of "Weldon's Home Dressmaker" was published in the early 1920s, but unfortunately was not dated. It was completely devoted to boys' fashions. |
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The oigins of fashion magazines can be traced to widespread publication of fashion plates which began in England and France in the late 18th century. The English periodical, The Lady's Magazine, published its first uncolored plate in 1770 and a year later produced its first color tinted plate. Several magazines were published in the 19th century, although we have only limited information at this time. One very important magazine was Queens. Even more publications appeared in the 20th century. There were not only fashion magazines, but a wide range of knitting and sewing magazines which also have detailed information on fashions. One very useful publication was Weldon's Home Dressmaker.
We have noted the following English fashion and sewing publications.
One of the most important English fashion magazines was Heideloff's Gallery of Fashion published 1794-1802. The Gallery is a wonderful record of English regency fashions. The editor said that he sought to show "the taste and restraint" of English fashion in contrast to the "wild exaggerations of French dress". The editor viewed English fashion at the time as a compromise between the "elegant simplicity" of classical Greek dress (which he approved of) and the English tendency toward embellishment with Vandyke trimming, Tudor ruffs, and other elaborate decoration. The editor was Nikolaus Innocentius Wilhelm Clemens von Heideloff (1761-1837). He was a youthful German born in Stuttgart and working in Paris. When the French Revolution disrupted the country, he fled to London and began publishing the Gallery of Fashion. It was published monthly and was the most luxurious fashion magazine of the day. While important as a early fashion magazine, the Gallery is less important to HBC as it appears to have focused primarily if not entirely on ladies' dresses.
The first true fashion plates were not as might be expected, French but rather English. The Lady's Magazine was publishing them from 1770 onwards. And it appeared similar magazines with fashion plates were being published on the Continent. The Lady's Magazine was the first true fashion-plate magazines that was issued regularly issued, the precursor of a the popular ladies magazines that kept European women informed of the latest fashions. The first color plates appeared in 1790. Until then individual dressmakers who would subscribe to the magazine often colored the
plates themselves to brighten the black and white prints and incourage customers to place orders. The Lady's Magazine was published in London, monthly, printed for Robinson and Roberts, starting in August of 1770. In 1820, they began a new series, starting again with volume 1 for that year. The Lady's Magazine with its emphasis on royalty and
other fashion leaders gave even women of modest means the ability to follow the latest fashion trends. The Lady's Magazine found a ready market and incouraged readers to submit contributions that were published in the magazines. The magazine offered women the opportunity to speak to other women, to argue with one antoher, and often to provide one another with specialized information otherwise hard to come by. The Lady's, together with other women's magazines at the end of the 18th century, nurtured a new materialistic culture for the rising middleclass--pretensions that previously the well to do could
aspire to. One observer reports, It is no exaggeration to claim that the "Lady's Magazine", in its first 50 years, from 1770 to 1820, defined public issues for women. Through its subsequent yearly appearance gathered in bound volumes, it not only had an indefinite shelf-life, but it became a magazine of reference.
The Ladies' Monthly Review was published in London and New York by the Butterick Publishing Company (Limited). I'm not sure when they were founded, but we know that they were publishing as early as 1894.
We note issues in the 1950s with knitting patterns.
We note a magazine titled The Parents Review. It was a British magazine published monthly in London. We believe it was founded in 1889. We are not sure about the publishing run, but it seems to have been published to about 1910. The Parents Review was edited by Charlotte M. Mason, a famous 19th-century educator, who developed an educational philosophy designed to nurture the individuality of children. As the title indicates, it had articles useful to parents. As is generally the case for parent-orinented the articles were centered primarily on information for mothers. This included articles on clothing and fashion.
The Queen Magazine was one of several English fashion magazines that were strongly influenced by French magazines. This is in part because fshion magzines primarily focused on women's fashions. One of the most important English magazines was the The Queen Magazine. It primarily focused on ladies fashions, but had some information about children's fashion as well. Quuen was founded by Samuel Beeton (1861). It was as the name suggest from the beginning a magazine for ladies, but not at first a fashion magazine. Beeton founded a a weekly society newspaper with very limited fashion information. Beeton focused on high society and covered London social events in detail. There were also articles on occupations, literature, and other inoffensive amusements considered to be suitable for proper ladies. The full original title of Beeton's magazine title was The Queen, the Ladies' Newspaper. Beeton did not run the magazine very long. He sold Queen to William Cox (1862). Cox realized that a major concern of society ladies was fashion amd that a publication aimed at them should include material about fashion. He began by obtaining some Paris fashion plates. He got the plates from Le Petit Courrier des Dames. The artist was A. Pauquet. He was a superb illustrator and the plates helped to make Queen a very popular magazine. Cox subsequently plates from Journal des Demoiselles. They were drawn by E. Préval, another excellent illustrator. A complication here was that even though Queen was an English fashion magazine, the fashion plates were French. The popularity of these plates caused Cox to shift the focus of Queen. The magazine became an important fashion magazine and began publishing larger plates to better show case the fashion.
We note issues in the 1960s and 70s. This appears to have been a sewing magazine of some importance.
Weldon's appears to have been a major supplier of pattrns to British mothers. We do not know when the company bergan operating. We have an issue of Weldon's Home Dressmaker devoted entirely to boys' clothing. It is undated, but is ussue N°248 (figure 1). It looks to us like about 1922. These pattern bookles were published by Weldon's Ladies Journal in Britain and Canada and provided advice, fiction, household hints, and fashion news to women. One of the services the magazine provided to its subscribers was the inclusion of a fashion portfolio that illustrated all of the new pattern releases--and a set of free sewing patterns. One reviewer maintains that "The Weldon patterns are some of the most stylish of their era." A British homemaker in the 1920s, however, recalls, "We always used Weldon's paper patterns for cutting out, and we had one for almost anything. They were very fragile and had to be used carefully, using pin holes that had been used before. When Woolworth's opened in Leigh, we were able to buy Butterick patterns which were more up to date. We are unsure just when Weldon's was first published, but we have noted issues in the 1890s-30s.
We note issues with numbers rather than dates and issues dated in the 1960s and 70s.
The Young Ladies' Journal was publishing in 1895. I'm not sure when they were founded.
We believe that there are a large number of English magazines devoted to fashion and sewing, but we are nt familiar with them. Hopefully our British readers will provide us information on some of the important publications.
Late 18th and early 19th century fashion plates offer a wonderful history of
costume and fashion. They focus primarily on ladies wear, but there are also some images of children's and mens' wear. Some prints, especially of the Directorie or Empire period, however, often depict idealized image created in the artist's imagination rather than depicting actual fashions.
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