The phrase “fashion plate” is layered with meanings. It is a portrait depicting an outfit that a clothier can supply. It is also frequently used to describe someone who wears the latest styles. But a plate is also a printing term, describing an illustration transferred to paper during the printing process.
RBML’s summer exhibition explores the interdependence between fashion and print to communicate ideas not only about what people wore, but also about those who produced and experienced these images. The exhibition begins with early modern surveys of national costumes, which sought to codify the diverse cultures that Europeans encountered around the world. It then traces emerging interrelationships among fashion plates and the periodical press, commercialism and the performing arts, and the subsequent evolution of various communities of readers and consumers. It culminates in the emergence of fashion photography, a new medium of expression for fashion in print that still shapes its viewers today.
The exhibition is curated by Anna Chen, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts. The exhibition will on view starting May 18, 2015, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 346 Main Library, 1408 W. Gregory Drive., Urbana, IL 61801, 217-333-3777.
Thanks to Dennis Sears of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library for this information item.