Exhibits - Fashionable Fayette

By the middle of the nineteenth century, Lexington had become the social and cultural center of the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky. It was the wealthiest town in the state and attracted residents from all over the United States and from Europe.

With this influx of cultured residents came the interest in current fashion trends and styles. Lexingtonians of sufficient means would travel to New York or Philadelphia to have their clothes made by the most fashionable “drapers” of the period. The wealthiest went to Paris, France to have gowns made by the top courtiers coping the styles made popular by Empress Eugėnie.

Most Lexingtonian’s would look to pattern books like Godey’s Ladies Book, for the illustrations of the latest styles and trends. They would then take the fashion plates to their own seamstresses and tailors and have copies and variations made to their taste.

This exhibition illustrates the type of clothing inspired by the fashion plates of the period. Many pieces were made by locally and in surrounding areas. The verity of color, style, fabric and detail reflects the individual tastes of the period between 1840 and 1880.