lifestyle leader

Way back in the day when I was brainstorming over what I would like my blog name to be, one of the titles on the list was "The Fashion Plate." Why? Like "clothes horse," the term is antiquated with multiple meanings; used figuratively it references a person who conforms to the latest fashions. The literal phrase comes from hand-engraved plates introduced in the beginning of the 1800s to promote the clothing style of the time. The illustrations of the plates would be published in the popular newspapers and magazines of the day. Today they give us a detailed, if idealistic, depiction of the style of bygone eras.These fashion plates are from the 1870s and Hungary. Detailed and rich in color, they epitomize what fashion plates became at the peak of their popularity in the mid-1800s.