Fashion Icons in History

There have forever been trendsetters, people in the public eye whose taste and ideas lead to others copying and adapting them into their own dress. Celebrities of their day, whose clothing was observed in detail and then spread through the means of letters, prints or word of mouth. 

Emma Hamilton was born as Emma (or Emily) Lyon into modest circumstances but her beauty and her artistic talents made her the muse of artists and an extremely famous and celebrated performer of tableaux vivants herself. Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, better known als Madame de Pompadour, caught the eye of the French King Louis XV and essentially became his minister for culture through her patronage of the arts and her interest in the foundation of businesses like the highly regarded porcelain manufacture Sèvres. Marie Antoinette is (in)famous for her extravagance, at least in her early years at the French Court. Together with her very skillful and creative dress maker Rose Bertin she was constantly changing something about her wardrobe.