The undefined fashion: Constructing a fashionable way of life in late 17th century French engraving

Abstract

The subject of this article is a set of engravings from the end of the 17th century known as “fashion prints”. This definition is based on the modern consumer understanding of fashion, where fashion is defined as something that can be accessed primarily through the acquisition of certain goods and services. In the last third of the 17th century, a group of engravers and publishers from rue Saint Jacques created a large number of engravings in which great attention was paid to the detailed representation of the costume and hairstyle. However, in the engravings themselves, the ways of constructing the ‘fashionable' were far more varied, and not linked only to the status of certain products. The article analyzes the visual and linguistic strategies used to represent fashion, as well as their interaction. Unlike later fashion magazines, where the principle of novelty comes to the fore, and with each new issue, what was previously presented as fashionable, ceased to be so, in fashion engraving each new imprint added to the existing picture, making it more and more complex and less understandable. For an outside observer (and first of all the buyer of such engravings), fashionable status was open to imitation and yet fundamentally unattainable, not only because of the association of fashion with the closed society of the court, but also because an individual engraving and even a collection of engravings did not present a complete full picture. As Molière's satire shows, a man who copied only some of the elements of fashionable style only made himself a laughingstock.