Fichier:The Fountain in the rue du Regard, Year VII - 1799.jpg

This plate shows a woman in an Empire style dress, typically made of white muslin. These dresses were called 'chemises' and had an empire waist (right below the bosom). Women wore only light underwear underneath, in contrast to the corsets and petticoats of earlier and later fashions. This style was simple and showed more of the woman's natural body than older, more formal styles. The woman wears a simple cotton hat, adorned with a ribbon, reflective of a more democratic style worn by women at all levels of society and made more cheaply with the influx of cotton from British-ruled India.