Collecting | Antique French Fashion Prints

Fashion, is there anyone who doesn't love it? I will admit, I'm a bit vain about looking a certain way, especially when I go outside our home for any occasion. Sometimes accused of being an "overdresser" by my American girlfriends, it's the European in me! or...Blame it on my mother!

A European lady, she learned to always look "just so" from her mother, my grandmother, and SHE never ever spent a day looking less than well dressed. Always in an elegant dress, wearing mid-sized heels and her pearls and/or gold jewelry, I think there is only one photograph of her in pants {quelle horreur!} while she was on an exotic vacation with my grandfather. ONE.

Fashion has always been something women dreamed of. These days although we tend to dress much more casually, collecting antique French fashion prints can bring back that style, glamour and elegance of bygone eras.

I fell in love with this collection of antique prints in Paris, and snapped them up for their beauty, their colors, and oh, well, their glamorous, beautiful style!

These exquisite color plates are from the French Couturier Fashion magazine LA FEMME CHIC, printed in Paris, France in the very early 1900's.

Marketed toward the Paris elite, La Femme Chic, along with several others, was an influential magazine defining new trends in fashion during the the early part of the century. It was published between 1916 - 1939.

Elegance, style and on the brink of the Roaring Twenties, this gorgeous and very collectable fashion plate collection was colored completely by hand in stunning colors of dark greys, blacks, soft pinks, blues, greens, golden yellows and dove greys.

Executed by some of the most prominent French artists, each is an original work of art.

To be expected in prints of this age, there may be a few characteristic areas of foxing etc., but these are in beautiful antique condition. Perfect to frame, they love the company of others.

Displayed in a grouping, these feminine prints make a stunning statement! Each measures: 14-1/4" x 10-3/4".

I'll be sharing the article I wrote about collecting Antique Prints for Victorian Homes Magazine that is out this week in a few days.

The botanical prints featured in the post about my early winter mantel are almost sold out! More are coming, because I agree with all of you, collecting those gorgeous, decorative antique prints is a fantastic way to display original works of art (they are hand colored, so each was a little bit different} in your home to express your own personal style!

See the available Antique French Fashion Prints here...