More C19th important
fashion magazines are dealt with on earlier pages. In the main the
French fashion magazines made more impact than any other publications.
All others looked to France for inspiration.
One of the longest running
English female magazines was The Queen magazine that began in 1861.
Samuel Beeton started the publication as a weekly newspaper containing very
little about fashion. It was concerned initially about social events,
occupations, literary interests and other inoffensive amusements suitable
for ladies. The full title was The Queen, the Ladies' Newspaper.
The early sale of The Queen in
1862 to William Cox meant a change in the fortunes of the magazine which
soon included fashion plates he obtained from Paris. Cox made a good
choice in using plates from The Petit Courrier des Dames and the artist was
of course one of the best - A. Pauquet. A little later work of the
artist E. Préval also appeared from the magazine he worked for called
Journal des Demoiselles. Of course works by these early artists for
Queen were on smaller paper than later fashion plates because the original plates
were smaller.
The inclusion of French plates
was so important that the address given for the Queen was No.1 Boulevard des
Italiens the address of the French Petit Courrier offices. By the late
1860s, The Queen fashion plates were enlarged to match the magazine size and
plates were most often of two adults plus a child or plates exclusively of
children's clothes. Variations of plates continued and in the 1880s
included large group formations as well.
The Queen Magazine
The latest slim fashions of 1880 shown as a group of figures.
Some of the best and most
artistic plates were issued after 1888 and were by the artist
A. Sandoz.
Sandoz
The Sandoz plates had very
English settings and are essentially English in origin. They were only
issued in Britain, but coincided with the trend at the time to produce larger fashion plates.
La mode Illustrée also followed this trend to larger plates.The Queen fashion plates usually measure about 11" by 15".
The single Sandoz plates
appeared for 10 years 1888-1898 as a hand coloured supplement and was
issued just at the start of each month rather than weekly. In 1898 The
Queen abandoned hand colouring and moved to
chromolithography - the colour printed fashion plate. You may
be interested to know that The Queen magazine was the last English magazine
to retain hand colouring until economic forces meant the inevitable move
with the times to mechanised colour printing.
The Queen Magazine
The last of bustle styles by A. Sandoz
Even now, The Queen is a fashion
magazine that survived longer than any other British fashion and style
magazine. It often seems that Vogue has been running forever, but
Vogue was not published in the UK until 1916. The Queen ran well until
the 1960s when because of its huge success it suddenly faced deliberate
competition from Harpers Bazaar an equally upscale magazine competitor
directed at the same customer base. The deliberate pursuit of the existing
Queen magazine market succeeded and The Queen magazine was sold in 1968.
After the sale Harpers took over
running it as a combined magazine re-launch with the new name Harpers & Queen. Usually when magazines amalgamate the second name gets smaller and smaller until the second name disappears. But
this amalgamation has been hugely successful and although the word Queen is far too small it does still appear on the magazine cover, making Harpers & Queen one of the world's ultimate style bibles for high
society and the aspiration of those upwardly mobile today almost 40 years later.
A few months after writing this page I find that sadly the Queen name is
now thought too Debutante like, in a modern world and so will be removed.
From March 2006, Harpers & Queen will be called Harpers Bazaar.
Arghhh - not again - another name change for this long lived magazine. In September 2007 to celebrate the new look Harper's BAZAAR, 50,000
London newsstand copies of bazaar were each studded with 200 Swarovski
crystals on the updated new title. The move to the new logo was to
bring Harper's BAZAAR in line with sister titles globally.
Bazaar is pressing forward to make itself an iconic international fashion
brand and is a strong challenger to the iconic world of Vogue.
There were no end of fashion
magazines launched in the C19th. They lasted from a year to
half a century or more.
Two other Victorian English
magazines of note were Sylvia's Home Journal 1878-1894 and The
Lady's Treasury 1858-1895, both of which published French fashion plates
at various times in their life. So there were plenty of fashion
magazines around the turn of the C19th century. You can see
some images of lace and collars from The
Lady's Realm on an older page here.
These 1890s plates below are from
France Mode 1892 and The Queen. They show how sleeves began to gain
fullness which culminated in the largest of leg o'mutton sleeves about 1895
and at the turn of the century it began to fall down the sleeve to become
slim line or more blouson in the lower section.
This last set of plates is Edwardian and are intricate graphics from the
wonderful magazine Chic Parisien of 1906. They can be used as
colouring in pictures. They highlight elements important to Edwardian
fashion - the blouse, gowns dripping with lace and the tailor made.
Fashion-Era.com looks at women's costume and fashion history and analyses the mood of an era. Changes in technology, leisure, work, cultural and moral values. Homelife and politics also
contribute to lifestyle trends, which in turn influence the clothes we wear. These are the changes that make any era of society special in relation to the study of the costume of a period.
Fashion-Era.com can take no responsibility for any information on the site which may cause you error, loss or costs incurred from use of the information and links either directly or
indirectly. This site is owned, designed, written and developed by author: Pauline Thomas and Guy Thomas. This site is designed to be viewed in 1024 X 768 or higher.
Before you write to me for costume/fashion help or information please, please consult the extensive sitemap which lists all our pages. If you still cannot find the answer after searching the site, then before you email me, please consider if you are prepared to make a donation to the website.
Donations Reader's donations help this site flourish, in particular donations encourage me to write more articles on fashion history as well as current trends. PayPal
allows anyone with a credit card to donate easily and securely. You may donate any sum you feel appropriate.
If you have any comments, or if you see any broken links, then please email with details of the page url or problem.
Find great anniversary gift ideas from Premier Gifts. Choose from our wide range of anniversary gifts to celebrate your special day in style.
Designer Inspired BagInc Fashion Bags and Cheap Handbags at Wholesale Rates.
Sandoz
After the sale Harpers took over
running it as a combined magazine re-launch with the new name Harpers & Queen. Usually when magazines amalgamate the second name gets smaller and smaller until the second name disappears. But
this amalgamation has been hugely successful and although the word Queen is far too small it does still appear on the magazine cover, making Harpers & Queen one of the world's ultimate style bibles for high
society and the aspiration of those upwardly mobile today almost 40 years later.
