until Sunday September 04 2016

Mak - Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art
T : +43 (0)1 711 36-0
Stubenring 5
A - 1010 Wien
Austria

With the aid of numerous design drawings, ornamental prints, illustrated books, posters, and magazines from the MAK Library and Works on Paper Collection, this exhibition proves that haute couture is not a 21st-century invention.

“High” fashion and valuable accessories have been en vogue since the early modern period—as is illustrated by plates from the 16th century, for example by Jost Amman, Wenzel Hollar, and Jacques Callot, and later by Petitot’s Mascarade à la Grecque [Masquerade in the Greek style] and Watteau’s Figures de modes [Figures of fashion], as well as the exuberant fashion plates in the first magazines, such as Élégance Parisienne and its German counterpart Journal des Luxus und der Moden.