Les Embarras de Paris: Gazette du Bon Ton 1920

po-SHWAR, French for "stencil"], flourished from its inception in the late-nineteenth century into the early decades of the twentieth. Though the Gazette’s magazine format inherently created multiples of each of its illustrations, pochoir’s meticulous process of hand-coloring lent each print its own luxe textures and unique dimensionality. To achieve this effect, a colorist would apply different inks, watercolors, or gouaches onto an uncolored print through pre-cut stencils. Painting each hue through the appropriate stencil, the colorist would gradually layer areas of color until the image was complete. The painstaking detail behind these captivating images — not to mention all that went into creating the fashions which inspired them — makes them true works of art.