Cabinet des Modes

[1] It contained advertising by individual tailors, dressmakers and fashion merchants, who by this time had begun to issue brochures about their work, and it also functioned as a mail order catalog.

[1] In contrast to the extremely expensive predecessor, the magazine was affordable with a prize of 21 livres.

[1] Its affordable price made it into an organ by which the middle classes could acquire what was deemed to be good taste by the aristocracy, a democratization which was pointed out also by the magazine itself.

[1] The Cabinet des Modes was an innovation and is considered to be the first proper fashion magazine in Europe and the world.

To meet the competition, its example was soon followed abroad by Journal des Luxus und der Moden (1786-1827) in Germany, and Giornale delle Dame e delle Mode di Francia in Milan (1786-1794), Giornale Dedicato al Bel Sesso (1786-1788) in Venice and Gallery of Fashion in Britain (1794-1803), some of which were in fact plagiarized translations of the French predecessor.