Fashion plates are a classic, even stereotypical angle image from the Victorian era, featuring duos and trios of women modeling the latest looks circa 1877. But how did consumers of the time actually use these images? What did you actually do with a fashion plate, anyway? Recently released in lavish paperback, Fashion Plates: 150 Years of Style is a beautiful chronicle of the form in its heyday. It’s the work of April Calahan, a fashion historian who works in special collections at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, whose holdings the book draws from. (Calahan explained they’ve got around 500 linear feet of materials, about 400 rare periodicals, and something like half a million original designer sketches.) Calahan opted for a vignette approach, rather than a straight-through history of the form sprinkled with illustrations. Each time you turn the page, you’re presented with a specific plate and bit of specific explanation or broader context. (...