‘Journal des Dames et des Modes’ Costume de bain

This magazine was published three times a month, on the first, tenth and twentieth, from 1912 until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, each edition limited to 1279 copies and a total of seventy-nine issues produced altogether. Each edition contained between one and four stencil prints, or ‘fashion plates’ as they were known, one hundred and eighty-six being produced altogether. Stencil printing consists of cutting the shape of the subject out of thick paper, metal, etc., color being applied to the stencil with a brush and then using it to print. This was a popular technique for posters in the mid-nineteenth century, but at the end of the century, it was vastly improved upon by hints acquired from Japanese stencil dying and woodblock prints. In the fashion pages of this magazine, they have even succeeded in depicting the texture of the material of the clothes.
The fashion plates in this magazine were produced by people like Georges Barbier or Charles Martin, leading illustrators of their time and they expressed the very latest top fashions. Unlike the other magazines of the day, the articles were not limited to home hints or descriptions of fashion, instead they displayed a strong tendency towards cultural and artistic content, inviting works from such critics and literary writers as Anatole France or Jean Cocteau.