La Belle Assemblée
La Belle Assemblée (or Bell’s Court and Fashionable Magazine Addressed Particularly to the Ladies) was published in England between 1806 and 1832. Best known for its fashion plates depicting Regency styles, the magazine also included original poetry and fiction, articles on politics and science and book and theatre reviews. Contributors included Mary Shelley and Catharine Hutton.
Each edition typically contained five fashion plates, one depicting a member of the court or fashionable society, two depicting the latest fashions and two providing sewing patterns.
Georgette Heyer makes reference to La Belle Assemblée, and also to The Ladies Monthly Museum (or The Polite Repository of Amusement and Instruction) which was published between 1798 and 1832, in several of her novels.
“..the ladies fell into enthusiastic discussion of current fashions, Miss Charing showing Lady Buckhaven the picture of a ravishing Chinese robe of lilac silk which she had discovered in one of the numbers of “La Belle Assemblee”, and Lady Buckhaven arguing that a light puce would be more becoming to her new friend.”
Cotillion, Georgette Heyer