@SakuraShower
Yes, actually. Bustle dresses and puffed sleeves are coming into fashion in this manwa's timeline (kind of awkward considering they're going from a Rococo/Marie Antoinette style of dress to something popular in the 1870s in American/European fashion, but I digress.)
If you look up "Godey's Lady's Book" or "Frank Leslie's Lady's Magazine," you'll find that magazines were extremely popular, and fashion plates were how rich women got their ideas for what the next big fashions were going to be (usually from Paris.)
I've only studied the late Victorian era, however, so I cannot tell you about earlier than that. Fashion plates have been around for ages, though.