Background:

These prints are from issues of the Parisian fashion magazine Journal des Dames et Des Modes published in 1912.  The magazine itself was published three time a month from 1912 through 1914.  Publication then ceased with the outbreak of the First World War.

Prints from this series are indeed rare with only 1250 sets published.  The prints shown here are from set number 334.

The magazine enlisted some of the best known writers and artists of the day to report on fashions and society, employing "poetic text and colorful annotations" in the words of one reviewer.

The beautiful fashion prints were produced through the pochoir technique, an early method of silk screening, on a heavy cotton weave paper.