I'm John Matthew Professor Anne Higone. Her new book is Liberty, Equality Fashion, the women who style the French Revolution.

And the dresses we're talking about in the styles are available online.

Anne and her colleagues and her students make it available. They were at the Morgan.

And Anne, there's a joy in your book because the journal that

you've rediscovered for us was always there at the Morgan, but we couldn't find it. What was the

secret that allowed you to find like a detective? Well, the fashion plates, which were the rarest in the world, because, you know, things

get lost during a revolution, had been cataloged in a quirky way.

So they were sort of caught between two different departments at the Morgan.

And even though generations of scholars had roved from library to library,

looking at one plate here, three plates there, in order to understand this period,

the complete set was there unknown and forgotten at the Morgan.

And I happened to see this quirky entry and I decided, well, I told me subway right away.

So I went to the Morgan and to my delight discovered this forgotten treasure.

And then after the delight came the shock of realizing that the true story of this marvelous fashion revolution

had not only never been told, it had been concealed from the world because it was so radical.

Yes, the drawings include there's a couple of men in this because the men were having

their revolution of three-piece suits and colorful vests and a jacket that it has a French

name, but it's got long tails and the

front of the jacket is cut out so you can see the waist. You've all seen pictures of

this in the Napoleonic Wars. We need to do whatever happened to. First, the first to leave us

is Josephine. It's 1814. She touches the cold. By that time, she's divorced from Napoleon,

but I take it that she's become content with her life. Is that she doesn't look tormented at the end,

...