Journal des Luxus und der Moden 1790, Band V, T.2 1790

Friedrich Justin Bertuch created this fashion plate around 1790, capturing the styles of the late 18th century with delicate precision. Note the towering hairstyle adorned with feathers, a symbol of status and extravagance, reflecting the era's obsession with artifice and display. Consider how this image is a distant cousin to the peacock feathers of ancient myth. The peacock, associated with Hera, the queen of the gods, was a symbol of vanity, pride, and rebirth. Like the peacock, this hairstyle, flaunted on the heads of fashionable women, speaks of similar concepts of status. Yet, there's a poignant echo here of the inevitable decay of empires, mirroring the fleeting nature of fashion itself. The delicate feathers, so carefully arranged, seem to presage their own inevitable fall, a reminder of the cyclical progression of history. What resurfaces on the aristocratic head now is destined to be swept away by the winds of change, to be replaced by new symbols of status, reborn with a new image.