In the last two posts we focused on fashion, Dutch painters and the Rijksmuseum's collections, so let's try and combine these three things together in a weekend post that looks at the "New for Now" event. This exhibition, currently on in the Philips Wing of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, analyses the origin of fashion magazines.
As seen in a previous post, the origins of such publications is extremely fascinating: the first books that included information about fashion and trends were produced in the XVI century and mainly looked at the costumes and the traditional attires of various populations all over the world.
During the first half of the 1600s more collections of illustrations were published, while few volumes dedicated to fashion and the upper classes were published in France around 1624.
The first articles about fashion appeared in the Mercure Galant, a magazine launched by Jean Donneau de Visè in 1672. The fashion articles published in this magazine between 1678 and 1679 were illustrated by images that could be considered as ads since they were accompanied by the names of the suppliers of the clothes and accessories.
The first fashion magazines appeared instead in the 1700s, and, from the 1850s, these publications became more affordable and acquired a wider readership.
Illustrations and prints soon turned into the main mediums to divulge fashion: these beautifully coloured plates showed women in fashionable dresses and often included a short description. For this reason, prints are considered the precursors of today's fashion magazines.
For the first time, the Rijksmuseum took out of its archives several costume and fashion prints to create a sort of chronological history of the changes that occurred in men and women's fashion from the 1600s up until the first half of the 20th century.
Designed and co-curated by Christian Borstlap in collaboration with fashion illustrators Piet Paris and Quentin Jones, the event features over 300 prints and also includes notions about the development of the fashion magazine into modern glossies.
Some of the rare images included such as engravings from the 1600s by Dutch artists like Gerbrand van den Eeckhout could be filed under the world costume and tradition label; others are instead wonderful examples of fashion and feature extravagant plumed hats and wigs; exaggerated sleeves and frilly pantaloons; frock coats covered in opulent gilded embroideries; cage-like crinolines and bustles; cherry silk gowns with long trains and decorative elements made with diamonds, pearls, feathers and ribbons.
A mysterious masked lady in a fur coat and a hood depicting Winter by Wenceslaus Hollar (1643) could be the perfect image for an S&M novel à la Venus in Furs; a woman on the cover of The Gallery of Fashion (1st July 1794) looks trapped in a huge cake-like gown, while the ladies in a fashion plate from 1850 remind readers that ready-made garments were already on offer at vendors such as the Maison Gagelin in Paris.
The works on display are mesmerisingly elegant with models depicted in great detail: these early prints prove the skills of many talented artists who could be considered as pioneers of the fashion illustration discipline. In those times the printmaker was responsible for transferring the design sketches onto an engraving that could reproduce the design. A colourist subsequently added colours to each individual image by hand.
There are extremely rare pieces included in this event such as engravings from Le Journal des Dames and Demoiselles (October 1859) and prints by Georges Barbier, Raoul Dufy, Georges Lepape, or by fashion designer Paul Poiret.
The exhibition closes with images from the '20s that reveal the arrival on the fashion scene of a completely new woman: in a 1921 illustration by Andre Edouard Marty, a woman in a Paul Poiret dress opens windows while the caption reads "un peu d'air" (a little bit of fresh air); in a 1923 image a woman poses in Amalfi, the blue sea contrasting with the golden shade of her Worth ensemble.
Many of these rare prints on display come from two collections acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 2009 - the Raymond Gaudriault Collection and the MA Ghering-van Ierlant Collection.
You would love to see this exhibition, but Amsterdam is not on your map at the moment? Don't despair as the Rijksmuseum knows how to make its fans scattered all over the world happy: all 8,000 prints from these collections can be viewed on the museum website thanks to a multi-year project during which the prints were catalogued and digitalised. As an alternative you can buy some of the prints included in the event from the online shop, or discover which are the favourite prints of Els Verhaak, Curator of Iconographic Collections, and Heather Hughes, Curator of Prints, or download some of the images and play with them on the museum's Rijksstudio application.
Apart from featuring wonderful illustrations, "New for Now" proves that it is possible for modern museums to launch informative exhibitions (and open up wonderful opportunities for digital researches...) even without spending huge sums of money on extravagant sets and without asking for major sponsorships from powerful fashion conglomerates.
New for Now: The Origin of Fashion Magazines, the Philips Wing of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, until 27th September 2015.
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