Fashion plates were much in vogue in late seventeenth-century France. What mattered in these prints was less the likeness of the subjects (who were typically anonymous or interchangeable) than the clothes and accessories they flaunted. Large mirrors such as the one featured here were luxury products and technological novelties. In 1665, Colbert had established the Manufacture royale de glaces de miroirs (Royal Mirror Glass Manufactory), but it took several decades before France surpassed Venice as the leader in the mirror industry.