Charles PILATTE was an artist and pioneer in Paris specialized in fashion drawing. He drew unique dresses and which were much superior to fashion engraving. He had as clients all the elegant women of the Second Empire, making for each one of them a special drawing. PILATTE quickly became one of those creators of fashion figurines, such Emile MILLE, Léon SAULT, to which fashion houses, novelty magazines or luxury homes are turning in the mid-nineteenth century to disseminate their creations through of advertising lithographs. Described as "cartoonists in costumes and dresses" in the Didot-Bottin from 1860, they produced a large number of stereotyped gouache drawings allowing a more intense production and diffusion of the models. Charles PILATTE died November 20, 1885 in London where he had settled for several years. His body was transfered to be buried in Paris.