Dressing Up: The Women Who Influenced French Fashion

How wealthy American women--as consumers and as influencers--helped shape French couture of the late nineteenth century; lavishly illustrated.

French fashion of the late nineteenth century is known for its allure, its ineffable chic--think of John Singer Sargent's Madame X and her scandalously slipping strap. For Parisian couturiers and their American customers, it was also serious business. In Dressing Up, Elizabeth Block examines the couturiers' influential clientele--wealthy American wome...