Mapping the
Journal des dames et des modes


Printing and Selling the Journal

liberte presse

The first edition of the Journal des dames et des modes was released on March 20, 1797 by Jean-Baptiste Sellèque and Pierre de La Mésangère. Originally composed of 8 text pages plus 1 or 2 fashion engravings, a new issue of the Journal appeared about every 5 days. Parisian readers could subscribe for the cost of 30 francs per year, 16 francs per 6 months, and 9 francs per quarter in 1798. Because the Journal's production required the collaborative efforts of workers in many different trades, it was created in several places. This map visualizes where the Journal's offices were located, where it was printed, and where it was available to purchase.

Fashionable Spots

debucourt painting

This map documents the fashion hotspots named in captions to Journal des dames et des modes plates. In the earliest and most radical years of the JDM, 1797-1798, these 38 plates cite 18 specific locations in Paris where the fashions illustrated were seen. Unlike any other fashion plates from the period, these depict women alone in urban streets and public spaces. The locations mentioned by the JDM are mainly theaters and parks—spaces of spectacle and display concentrated in the northwestern part of the city. While a few of these places survive, many have disappeared. The map allows us to see how close these places were to each other, and to the offices of the JDM, forming a network of fashionable sociability in revolutionary Paris.