A new exhibit, La Gazette du Bon Ton: Art Deco Fashion Plates from 1913-1922, is on view January 28, 2008 to April 10, 2008, at Pratt’s Brooklyn campus Library.
The exhibit is curated by Cheryl M Costello, Art & Architecture Librarian, and features rare ladies’ fashion illustrations from the renowned Parisian fashion journal, La Gazette du Bon Ton (which translates as The Magazine of Good Taste). From the beginning of the publication to its end, La Gazette featured clothing designed by the best couturiers and depicted by the best illustrators working in Paris during the Art Deco period. Published intermittently in Paris from 1912 to 1925 with interruptions due to World War One, La Gazette is the most famous and beautifully produced fashion periodical of its time. Created through the employment of the pochoir technique, the sumptuous fashion plates from La Gazette du Bon Ton, in addition to offering beautiful works of illustration, give viewers a peek into the development of art, fashion, and design at a time when society was changing significantly and rapidly. La Gazette illustrations testify as to how trends and movements within the fine arts, such as Orientalism, Cubism, Futurism, and Abstract art, had a profound influence on the decorative arts during this time.
In addition to viewing the exhibit, La Gazette du Bon Ton, the Pratt Library invites you to view our digitized Pratt Institute Fashion Plate Collection, which is accessible online, care of the Pratt Visual Resources Center: http://library.pratt.edu/digital.html. There you will find images from this exhibit as well as other fashion plate images owned by the Pratt Institute Library, Brooklyn.
