Petit Courrier des Dames, 1832, No. 895 : Chapeau en gros de Naples (...) 1832

This fashion plate, printed in Paris in 1832, shows clothing made from a variety of textiles – silk, lace, and printed cotton foremost among them. These materials were deeply enmeshed in global trade networks. Silk production depended on cultivated silkworms, an industry closely managed through the nineteenth century. Lace was made by highly skilled workers, whose labor was increasingly challenged by machine production. And printed cotton was a mainstay of the textile industry, which by this time relied heavily on enslaved labor in the Americas. The design’s visual appeal lies in the contrasts of weight and texture, from the gauzy bonnets to the puffed sleeves and the umbrella, which hints at new forms of synthetic weather protection. All of this was assembled in workshops, by garment workers often laboring under difficult conditions. Next time you consider fashion, remember that it is never just about aesthetics. It's also about human labor, material ingenuity, and global connections.