Revolution à la Mode: Fashion and Music in Revolutionary France

Mia’s remarkable collection of 18th-century French periodicals—on view for the first time—document the tumultuous years leading up to and spanning the French Revolution. Regarded as the first modern fashion magazines, they were issued at an unprecedented pace—eventually every 10 days—to keep up with fashions that seemed to change daily. “Revolution à la Mode” showcases their charming hand-colored fashion plates, and demonstrates how fashion, theater, and politics influenced one another as France constructed a new democracy.​

From 1790 to 1792, these magazines included musical scores from contemporary theater productions for amateur performances at home. Mia partnered with violinist Peter Sheppard Skaerved (London’s Royal Academy of Music) and musicologist Rebecca Geoffroy-Schwinden (University of North Texas) to make new recordings of these songs long lost to history, allowing visitors to experience the soundscape of Revolutionary Paris.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website