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Le Pouf Gazette du Bon Ton, March 1924; Royal Ontario Museum Archives
Upon first glance, the most striking aspect of this fashion plate is the bold and colourful print of the dress enwrapping the tall, slim figure. However, with further reflection, what becomes more alluring is the expression on the face belonging to that figure as she stands off-centre on the left third of the page. Her dress is undeniably beautiful, but I begin to ponder more about what she was thinking while wearing the gown.
This response would likely have pleased Paul Poiret, the designer behind the gown. To him, the physicality of his models was important, as she should be tall with a slim figure, but she should be more than that. He stated that, “above all things, a mannequin must herself be an artist. She must have a feeling for the gown she wears” (“Whom do the Ladies Dress to Please?”).If Poiret felt that this model truly and artistically embodied his creation, then what was it she was thinking while in the gown? He sought to distinguish himself as an artist, not just a maker of clothes, and therefore it seems to me that he would appreciate a viewer taking the time to contemplate the artistic experience of wearing his creations.
However, this ambiguity of her expression was likely intended more as Arsène Alexandre has suggested, so that the buyer could see themselves embodying the garment and want to purchase it for themselves (“The Theatre of Fashion” 5). This dichotomy, between creating art and commodifying it is a convoluted relationship with which modern couturiers were well acquainted. This fashion plate of Poiret’s 1924 eveningwear creation is an interesting example of this entanglement.
Advertising Practices
Advertising in Gaszette du Bon Ton (another Paul Poiret design) 1924-25 Photo courtesy of Edition-Originale.comMainstream Fashion Advertising Women’s Wear Daily, Oct 27 1
The emerging concept of the fashion designer was accompanied by the desire to have their work valued and perceived as a facet of art rather than items for commercialized production (The Theatre of Fashion; Paul Poiret’s Minaret Style). However, this idea was embedded with contradiction, for in order for a couturier might be successful, they had to sell their creations for profit just as much as for prestige. This resulted in very particular advertising initiatives which were employed by Paul Poiret and his Haute Couture contemporaries. They sought to distance themselves from the methods used to advertise mass fashion department stores and the “crassness associated with obvious merchandise promotions” (The Theatre of Fashion 8). Poiret “maintained the distinctive allure of his products by not advertising (at least not to large audiences) and by appropriating the fine arts to promote the originality, uniqueness, and aesthetic quality of his designs” (Couture Culture, 46). This is evident in the Le Pouf Fashion Plate through such things as the leisurely stance of the model, her placement within the image as well as the detailed, labour intensive nature of the production. As Nancy Troy states, “[h]is ads were meant to not look like ads (Couture Culture 47).
This idea of employing more refined means of fashion dissemination is further evidenced by the magazine itself where Poiret chose to showcase this creation. The Gazette du Bon was created by couturiers “to perpetuate their art” and described as a “common ground where couturiers may meet to discuss and collaborate with painters” (Gazette du Bon Ton Makes After-War Debut). The creation of this periodical allowed for couturiers like Poiret to maintain elitist ideals surrounding their garments as regulated works of art rather than commodities. According to Pierre Bourdieu, “The higher a specific magazine is in the hierarchy of magazines, the more sober its descriptive style, corresponding to the high social position of its readers” which is evidenced by the minimal text which speaks only to the artist and its “exhibit” location within the magazine (Rocamora, 239). This dress, Le Pouf is a beautiful example of Poiret’s artistry. He had stated that he wanted for bring back the Ga into fashion as he felt that it had “made women charming because it was a defiance of sense and assertion of their independence and their disdain for logic, an affectation” (Parkins 10). This dress definitely speaks to that desire, but in a new (to his time) reinvented way. The simple, draped nature of the gown makes the “pouf” of the back bow particularly striking.
Power of Consecration
For art to be accepted within its field it is also important not to overlook those individuals who, as Bourdieu puts it, are those who have the power to recognize the work as art, the “producers of the meaning and value of the work” (Rocamora 235). These parties have the ability to“consecrate a certain type of work and a certain type of cultivated person” (Rocamora, 235). In the period of Paul Poiret’s couture, that power lay (complicatedly) in the hands of women. There was a generally held belief- from male couturiers to dress reform feminists- that women were integral to the fashion system (Perkins Gilman; Whom do the Ladies Dress to Please?). When it comes to Poiret, women in this position of power was a complex issue.
He designed for the female body and was said to be inspired by women and their “secrets” (Paul Poiret: Classic and New in the Struggle for Designer Mastery; Whom do the Ladies Dress to Please?). Therefore he was, to a certain extent, bound to serve those these “women that are artists of a kind: that they innately posses the secrets of feminine beauty and aesthetic self-fashioning” (Parkins 3). However, in an interesting twist to this idea that the art of fashion lies in the hands of women, Poiret attempts to position himself as an almost omniscient fashion power, knowing what is was that women secretly desired from fashion and providing it. Well, his wife Denise was said to be his muse, but they later divorced…
Poiret was given multiple divine monikers by the press (and himself in his autobiographies) which equated him with everything from the “King of Fashion” to Roman Triumvirates to the gods of Olympus (Parkins 1; Whom do the Ladies Dress to Please). He described Fashion as a “spirit” which, without his intervention, would overwhelm women and cause them to make poor judgements; essentially stripping them of the autonomy to influence the fashion system (Parkins 6). A Vogue article from 1920 states that “the Parisienne cannot not love Poiret; she sees in him one of the most inspired priests of the cult of the body”; how do you reject the art of the holy leader (Parkins 1)?
Despite- and perhaps because of-this convoluted power balance, women, as the primary consumer of the art of fashion must be considered to be an active player in the field of fashion (Parkins 3). In Le Pouf it is possible to see the model as representing the power of female beauty which could be harnessed and used, even as it was wrapped up in a bow, but also the male adulation which was perpetuated within the fashion system (Wrisley 101; Whom do the Ladies Dress to Please?)
Sub-Fields
Bourdieu envisioned the field of fashion as art as having two sub-fields. Those derivatives divided fashion into the category of Haute Couture, which was a “field of restricted production” and art for art’s sake in comparison with mass fashion, “the field of large scale production” whose purpose was commerce and profit (Rocamora 237).While this is a very neat demarcation of fashion into art and commodity, it does not always divide so cleanly, especially when examining Le Pouf and comparing it to various contemporary fashion descriptions made by Women’s Wear Daily.
Poiret regularly lamented the mass production of fashion and the fact that few couturiers and upper class women were willing to be bold and experiment with Haute Couture (Parkins 11; Poiret in London Criticises Sameness of Paris Fashions). Participation in the Gazette du Bon Ton marked Poiret out as being selective about the audience he wanted to reach with his art, but based on Women’s Wear and attempts to prevent reproductions, Poiret’s fashions were not always as distant from the average fashion consumer as he and Bourdieu may have liked (Paul Poiret’s Minaret Style). The necessity of trademarking his name for copyright laws in America is a clear example of this commodity versus signature art blending (Paul Poiret’s Minaret Style).
Even the Le Pouf design, striking as it is in terms of perhaps what comes to mind for the fashion of the period, can be associated with descriptions found in mainstream fashion publications. There are regular references made to Poiret’s use of the bustle this season and the draped, slim silhouette is even referenced in the fall of 1923 (“Poiret Shows Fitted Drape and Circular Silhouette”; Women’s Wear). The striking floral fabric is also visible in publications which reference large florals not only in the millinery showcased by Poiret, but in the fabric bought by the stores for selling to customers of mass fashion.
Dress fabric detail, close up Image courtesy of Edition-Originale.com
Fashion would be a much simpler area of study if throughout history the margins of its sub fields could be so cleanly defined. While this advertisement for Poiret’s 1924 evening gown was clearly intended for appreciation as art, both as a garment and indeed as the fashion plate itself, the intricacies of fashion dissemination and diffusion make it so while it can be admired on its own, it cannot be truly consecrated as “art” without examining its context in the fashion system.
Works Cited
“Cotton Goods: Floral Designs Predominate in New Line of Printed Voiles and Crepes: Floral Designs Varied.” Women’s Wear, 1923, pp. 7.
“Le Pouf. Robe Du Soir, De Paul Poiret (Pl.38, La Gazette Du Bon Ton, 1924 n°7).” Edition-Originale.com, www.edition-originale.com/en/prints-engravings-photographs/prints-xxe/poiret-le-pouf-robe-du-soir-de-paul-poiret-1924-55083.
London Bureau, Women’s W. “Poiret in London Criticises Sameness of Paris Fashions: Collection in London Branch Less Bizarre—Bustle Bows, Novelty Trains and Pointed Tunics Featured.” Women’s Wear, 1924, pp. 3.
“Millinery: Paul Poiret Hats being shown in Latest Import: Huge Peonies and Feather Chrysanthemums Bring New Interest in Flowers.” Women’s Wear, vol. 28, no. 35, 1924, pp. 24.
Parkins, Ilya. “Paul Poiret: Classic and New in the Struggle for Designer Mastery.” The Berg Fashion Library. N.p., 2012. The Berg Fashion Library. Web.
Perkins Gilman, Charlotte. Our Androcentric Culture. Project Gutenburg. released 2013.
Rocamora, Agnès. “Pierre Bourdieu: The Field of Fashion”. Thinking Through Fashion, edited by Agnès Rocamora and Anneke Smelik. I.B. Tauris, 2016. pp. 233-250.
“Sale of $18 dresses”. (1923, Oct 27). Women’s Wear, 27, 11. Web.
Service, Fairchild N. “Greek Line and Ornament Feature of Opening Groups: Varied Influences Apparent in Poiret Group Including Directoire, Oriental and Grecian — Finely Pleated Foundations and Bustles Frequent—Scarf Strongly Sponsored.” Women’s Wear, vol. 28, no. 26, 1924, pp. 1.
Service, Fairchild N. “Poiret shows Fitted Drape and Circular Silhouette: Tailleurs with Circular and Pleated Jackets—Evening Gowns of Bouffant Type in Antique Colorings —• French Colonial Influence in Collar and Belt Treatments.” Women’s Wear, vol.26, no.26, 1923, pp. 1.
“Sur La Pelouse. Robe, De Paul Poiret (Pl.59, La Gazette Du Bon Ton, 1924-1925 n°7).” Edition-Originale.com, www.edition-originale.com/en/prints-engravings-photographs/prints-xxe/poiret-sur-la-pelouse-robe-de-paul-poiret-1924-55185.
“The ‘Gazette Du Bon Ton’ Makes After-War Pebut: Every Epoch a Boudoir.” Women’s Wear, 1920, pp. 3.
Troy, Nancy J. Couture Culture: A Study in Modern Art and Fashion. MIT Press, 2003
Troy, Nancy J. “The Theatre of Fashion: Staging Haute Couture in Early 20th-Century France.” Theatre Journal 53.1 (2001): 1–32. Theatre Journal. Web.
Troy, Nancy J. “Paul Poiret’s Minaret Style: Originality, Reproduction, and Art in Fashion.” Fashion Theory – Journal of Dress Body and Culture 6.2 (2002): 117–144. Fashion Theory – Journal of Dress Body and Culture. Web.
“Whom do the Ladies Dress to PLease?: “the Men, of Course,” Replies Paul Poiret, the Famous French Couturier, as He Talks to our Correspondent about Modern Fashions for Women and how He Evolves the Wonderful Creations that make the Easter Parades a Glorious Pageant of Pretty and Well-Dressed Women.” The Washington Post (1923-1954), 1925, pp. SM1.
Wrisley, Melyssa. “Stella Blum Grant Report: ‘Fashion I Despised’: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and American Dress Reform, 1880–1920.” Dress 33.1 (2006): 97–110. Dress. Web.
“Miscellaneous Fashions: Vogue Pattern Service”, Vogue March 1, 1917
July, 1917
Front View of Muslin Day Dress, 1917 (Photo courtesy of Ingrid Mida; FRC 2014.07.323)
I will forever remember today for the rustle of muslin as the summer breeze drifted through the pleats of my skirt, fluttering my hem about the ankles. The large, soft floral pattern printed upon the muslin quietly echoes the shades of olive green and pastel pink which surround me, while the pink silk piping outlines my best features. The netting and lace which drape from my neck and elbows is feminine, yet tasteful. Unlike the fashions of the previous generation, those of silk and elaborate beading, the purely frivolous must be forgone in favour of such styles as may also be practical. As Women’s Wear states, women must be well dressed, but “the ultra-extreme to be considered taboo” (“Dress Demand Differs”). For these are times of war; sombre and patriotic. Yet my delicate, feminine silhouette demonstrates that, while the men in distant France fight and fall, here in Toronto the demands of day to day life continue. While I understand from my companions that changes for women were in motion before war broke out in Europe, the strain upon the nation’s workforce has accelerated women’s integration into roles beyond the home. While men and resources have been directed to the war front for some time now, this month marks the first time when conscription will be implemented (Acton 282). As such, I expect there will be more asked of the women who are left to fill the void. I only hope that I might offer my mistress some support in the endeavours that will come her way.
Side View of Muslin Day Dress, 1917 (Photo courtesy of Ingrid Mida; FRC 2014.07.323)
She, like so many other women, has been empowered by this movement towards a working life. This increase in a female workforce has been speculated to be the reason why the garment industry remains, despite rationing and restrictions; women are bringing in their own income and are able to manage their own dress allowance (Acton, 280;“Lack of Economy”). I believe this is aided by the very practical and sensible Canadian style. Again, I refer to the wisdom put forth by Women’s Wear which recognizes that while Canadian consumers are aware of new fashions, they remain keen on styles which are more conservative and longer lasting (“Outlook for Dresses Good”). I personally believe this is the best fashion tendency, especially in these uncertain times. I myself am proud to be Canadian and feel that I do embody such trends. For example, the lovely muslin draping from the waist and emphasizing the hips as well as my pastel shades (“Outlook for Dress Good).
Back View of Muslin Day Dress, 1917 (Photo courtesy of Ingrid Mida; FRC 2014.07.323)
September, 1920
It has been a couple of years since I was last out with my mistress. The fashions have changed and my waist-cinching silhouette is no longer desirable. In these post-war years, clothing has adopted a more linear, boyish shape which my full, gathered skirt and floral motif could never hope to achieve. And having spent this past summer behind the doors of the wardrobe once again, I understand that I have ceased to be a prized garment. I no longer offer her any value within society, and I am resigned to become a relic of a society gone by. My muslin shows the signs of wear, of the good days spent in service to my mistress. The conjunction of under sleeve and bodice no longer discreetly hides marks of perspiration, my flesh- toned muslin stained an unsightly yellow. The same can be said of my collar and cuffs, the lace showing my age and time of service. Here and there are scattered patches of discolouration and stains. Sadly, I do believe that my best days are behind me.
1970
Having spent the last fifty years shuffled slowly from the naively hopeful back of a wardrobe to the depressing docility of a dark attic clothing rack, today marked a movement in towards a cautiously optimistic outlook. Here’s what happened:
The descendants of my former mistress, upon deciding to clear out the old attic brought me to the rummage sale put on by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Having long ago lost any belief in my value, it came as no surprise when a tag was pinned to me declaring my worth at a mere fifty cents (Mida to Harlow). Once a garment at the height of fashion, sought after as a commodity which brought status, I was reintroduced to the marketplace at a price intended to rid themselves of my association. What I had learned long ago through my dismissal at the hands of my mistress was quantified by an amount less than one dollar. Society dismissed me, and at no value as a wearable garment, neither did I hold an emotional value to my mistress’s family.
But despite this low-marked price, my value was evident to a very unique individual. His name is Alan Suddon. Despite me missing my waist sash, Suddon seemed to see my beauty. I could once again remember the feeling of the wind rustling through my fabric and all the possibilities I once offered. Mr. Suddon could see the significance of my history, and purchased not just myself as a garment today, but all of what I have experienced. He has been collecting old garments since 1957, appreciating what these pieces- so often thrown away- have to offer, preserving them in what is fast becoming one of the most substantial collections in the country (FindingNew Homes for Dress Collections, 2). I am eager to see where this new adventure will bring, and what pages may come in my story. A story which I believed to have ended long ago.
April, 1976
These last few years in Alan Suddon’s personal collection have been quite interesting. As a founding member of the Costume Society of Ontario, which was formed shortly after my introduction into the collection, it has become even more evident to me just how much Mr. Suddon sees the cultural significance embodied by us old garments. It is remarked upon by many, the pride which Alan Suddon feels in his gathered garments.
Alan Suddon’s living room display The Globe and Mail (unfortunately there are no photos of myself on display, but here are some of my companions)
Not only was I being valued, perhaps not in the same manner I once was, I was once again fulfilling my role. I was enclothing a body; a woman was made to feel beautiful by my presence. I had a cultural significance and could take pride in who I was. Soon, though, my age began to show. I was tired and could no longer keep up with the demands of a moving body. I was delicate to begin with. My centre front closure of snaps was not supported by reinforcement, my seams began to give in places and the signs of wear grew. I suspect that it was this aging that led Mr. Suddon to remove my once elegant pink satin collar. Remnants of it remain, but they are disguised by the tiers of lace at my neck. He began to recognize the threat these dress up parties posed to the continuation of our story.
Unlike a living body, a dress form offers a perfect opportunity for my beauty to be appreciated and admired without causing too much strain on my construction. Mr. Suddon had six such dress forms set up in the living room of his home The day I was selected to be one of these special six garments was one that I had greatly looked forward to. I have just been put back away after this time on display. My feminine, floral elegance was on show to the Suddon family, any of his guests and to the many people who walked by the house and could see me through the living room window (Mida, Kim 4; Joyce). Being able to see the sunshine glimmer through the branches of the tree outside sparked memories of my summertime youth.
February, 2018
I cannot believe that this year marks my one hundred and first year of existence. Strange to think that I once believed my value to have expired. While every year since my construction was not remarkable, there have been some significant moments in which my worth has influenced my role in Toronto society. Today marked another important evolution in my value. While I once again was commoditized during the sale of the late Mr. Suddon’s collection, I believe that here in the Fashion Research Collection at Ryerson I have attained a status of permanent (at least for the foreseeable future) singularization (Kopytoff). While I was once priced at fifty cents, what I have to offer to the students of fashion is priceless, and beyond the sphere of the commodity. My significance to society has become my role as a didactic tool. I was pulled out from the archives for what my history can show. My fabrics, construction techniques, and signs of wear reveal much about the narrative history of fashion in Ontario. This particular student’s previous interaction with historical dress once limited to reproductions, I was able to expand her studies and learning experience to encompass a tactile existence.
