The Ladies’ Gazette of Fashion

May 1856-November 1864

Department of Consumer and Applied Science

[London]

Although the 19th century saw the proliferation of fashion magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar (1867) and Cosmopolitan (1886) there had been earlier ones. One, The Gallery of Fashion, appeared between 1794 and 1803 and was deemed Britain’s first fashion magazine. King George III’s daughters were subscribers who read it avidly. Today there are hundreds of ‘Fashion’ magazines, ranging from Allure (1991), AneCan (2007), and Elle (1945), to Look (2007), Seventeen (1944), and W (1971). Before the advent of photography, fashion was documented through engravings, paintings and drawings. This mis-bound volume of The Ladies’ Gazette of Fashion contains the ‘newest’ fashions of London and Paris from May 1856 to November 1864. The chief sponsor for these superb hand-coloured images is the silk mercer firm of Grant and Gask, Oxford Street.