Costume Parisien, Napoleon Era Fashion Plates

Here are some French Ladies from the Napoleonic Era:

Lady on the right is using a quizzing glass, not only a prerogative of men!

The dress on the right is using a shawl (probably cashmere) for the bottom third of the dress, a fashionable trim in those days. Cashmere is warmer than wool: about 3 times for their comparative weights, and the fashion of wearing lightweight muslins & cottons made warm outer-wear imperative.

Examples of Spencers and-or Pelisses.

Costume Parisien Napoleon-era fashion plates for MEN

Now I'm scanning & cleaning up some Costume Parisien fashion plates.  Half the problem is my scanner over-or-under-exposes everything,  Once scanned into Photoshop, I just hold the original artwork up and work to get the digital image looking pretty much the same, with less age-related yellowing.

Ackermann's Repository seldom had drawings of men, and they weren't nearly as detailed as the French fashion plates.  The rather sad thing is I mostly own post-Waterloo (1815) for men.  However, the fashions didn't change that rapidly: once guys discovered comfortable & attractive clothes, they pretty much stuck with it.  Well, jeans have replaced skin-tight knit -or buckskin- breeches!