A spokesperson says---
“...twenty-four hand-colored engravings, known as fashion plates, depicting French dress in the late eighteenth century…
prints from the Frick Art Research Library’s set of Gallerie des modes et costumes français (1778–87), the largest and most influential fashion plate series of its time. The plates offer rare insights into the world of clothing and accessories during the reign of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. French designs as captured in the prints also influenced fashion farther afield, as seen in Gainsborough’s contemporaneous portraits of British society figures..."
