On the History of Lithuanian Fashion: Why There Were No Local Fashion Magazines in Nineteenth-Century Lithuania

The concept of a fashion magazine, born in seventeenth-centuryFrance, caught on quite quickly in other European countries. ManyEuropean cultures either directly copied the French magazines orproduced their own versions. Lithuanian culture, however, produceda fashion magazine neither in the early days of female-orientedfashion periodicals, nor later. The purpose of the article is to reviewthe historical circumstances that prevented the occurrence of afashion magazine in nineteenth-century Lithuania and reflect onthe reasons why. The text explores the objective material and factorsaround fashion information consumption in the Lithuania of thenineteenth century, such as socio-political, linguistic issues, theurban environment, and the context of the printed press. Survivingexamples of nineteenth-century fashion discourse in the periodicalsTygodnik Wilenski and La Limande are introduced as the solitary casesof fashion publication in the territory of nineteenth-century Lithuania.The underdevelopment of consumerism, lack of urbanisation andabsence of explicit national self-identification are suggested as themain reasons that there was no national fashion magazine.