Video

Join Yifu Liu, Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow, in the reading room of the Frick Art Research Library to learn how he selected twenty-four hand-colored engravings from a collection of 370 to display on the walls of the special exhibition Ruffles & Ribbons: Fashion Plates from the Time of Marie Antoinette.

Join Yifu Liu, Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow, in the reading room of the Frick Art Research Library for an exploration of the French fashion industry in the late eighteenth century—when royal patronage and changes in daily life and culture reshaped textile production.

Join Yifu Liu, Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow, in the reading room of the Frick Art Research Library for this deep dive into the fashion of the “pouf”—the voluminous 18th-century hairstyle popularized by Marie Antoinette. Yifu discusses various types of poufs, as well as the measures women took to preserve them for days at a time, as illustrated in hand-colored engravings from the period.

Delight in Ruffles & Ribbons: Fashion Plates from the Time of Marie Antoinette, a special installation in The Frick Collection’s Cabinet Gallery displaying twenty-four hand-colored engravings, known as fashion plates, depicting French dress in the late eighteenth century.

Yifu Liu, Anne L. Poulet Curatorial Fellow, explores the legacy of this print series, which anticipated the arrival of modern fashion magazines. He discusses the historical context surrounding the fashion plates, including the influence of French Caribbean fashions, and shares some highlights of the installation, providing vivid glimpses into French daily life before the Revolution.