Journal le Printemps, Plate 1880

A. Paul (printmaker), after A. Lefrancq (designer)

Journal le Printemps, Plate 1880

Hand-colored Lithograph

This hand-colored fashion plate showcases Victorian-era dress from around 1884, a period characterized by the prominent bustle silhouette. The bride is depicted wearing a white wedding gown with a long veil and sweeping train, reflecting the growing popularity of white bridal attire during the late nineteenth century. Beside her stands a companion or wedding guest dressed in a richly colored formal gown embellished with lace detailing and a pronounced bustle, typical of fashionable women's dress at the time. The widespread popularity of white wedding dresses is often attributed to Queen Victoria, whose choice to wear a white gown at her 1840 wedding helped establish the style as a lasting bridal tradition.

Journal le Printemps was a prominent French fashion magazine published in association with the elite Parisian department store Printemps. Active from the mid-nineteenth century into the early twentieth century, the publication combined fashion journalism with advertising, offering subscribers finely detailed illustrations of the latest styles available in Paris. These fashion plates were typically printed through engraving or lithographic processes and then meticulously hand-colored by artisans. Such works provide important insight into the evolution of Victorian and early Edwardian dress, documenting changing ideals of femininity, domesticity, and consumer culture during a period when Paris was widely regarded as the international center of fashion. Today, original fashion plates from Journal le Printemps are valued by collectors and historians alike for their artistic craftsmanship and their role in preserving the visual culture of nineteenth-century haute couture.

Dimensions: H 13.25 x 10 W

Condition: tear on bottom middle edge