This lecture looks at the early nineteenth century, a sort of “pre-theoretical” moment in which a new modern visual culture of fashion was emerging whose parameters and defining characteristics were not yet graspable. It is an intriguing moment for us, as we too are caught up in a world of rapidly changing media imagery and commercial practices that elude clear definition. We see exposed in early nineteenth century fashion culture more clearly than in later cultural theories the different, not necessarily compatible, levels at which such a culture operates; the sometimes conflicting values it brings into play; and the different temporalities both sustaining and disrupting it.