The Lady’s Monthly Museum, August 1808.
“London Dresses for August.”
At this time, The Lady’s Monthly Museum was often “borrowing” (i.e. copying) prints from Fashions of London and Paris. The yellow dress on the right was copied from a lilac-colored dress from the previous month’s Fashions of London and Paris, shown here. It is not an exact copy. In fact, it was entirely redrawn. But you can see that the dress is the same in every detail. The description was not copied at all, and is even more brief than the one in the original magazine.
I confess I sort of love the tunic with its giant vandyked edge.
I have not been able to identify a dress from Fashions of London and Paris that was copied for the figure on the left in this print. But there were several similar prints throughout 1808 that might have served as inspiration if not exactly copied.
This print is signed by the engraver, Robert Sands.
The print is described in the magazine as follows:
“Fig. 1.–Full Dress–A dress of primrose sarsnet, half dress of white crape, richly embroidered. – A Spanish hat, the colour of the dress, ornamented with feathers.
“Fig. 2.–Evening Dress–A plain dress of white muslin; a scarf shawl of silk, and hat of silk, to correspond with the colour of the shawl.”
