FIDM Museum Blog

Out & About: Visiting the Maryhill Museum of Art

Though our blog posts usually focus solely on FIDM Museum projects, today’s post explores another museum's collection. I recently visited the Maryhill Museum of Art, home of the legendary Théâtre de la Mode. Because of Maryhill’s location in rural Washington State, not many fashion enthusiasts have the opportunity to see this unusual collection. Experiencing the Théâtre de la Mode in-person was a fascinating experience, one worth sharing with all of our readers.

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Perched on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River, the Maryhill Museum of Art is a long, long way from the haute couture ateliers of Paris. Located on the southern border of Washington State, Maryhill is also a long way (100 miles) from the nearest international airport in Portland, Oregon. Despite its distance from Paris, Maryhill owns a one-of-a-kind collection of Parisian haute couture, the Théâtre de la Mode. Consisting of 2 foot tall wire dolls dressed in haute couture from head-to-toe, this collection offers a unique snapshot of late World War II Parisian fashion.

Visitors to the Maryhill will see 41 of the original dolls on display, staged in three different backdrops. Balenciaga's pearl and bead embroidered evening gown, with matching hat, is front and center when you enter the exhibition. The backdrop is Le Jardin Merveilleux (The Marvelous Garden) by set designer Jean-Denis Malclès. The original backdrop was lost, but Malclès participated in a 1989 recreation of the original set.

 

Fashion Birthday: Hubert de Givenchy

Couturier Hubert de Givenchy was born on this day in 1927. Now retired, Givenchy is one of the last living couturiers to have learned his art during the golden age of the haute couture. His training began in 1945 when he took a position with Jacques Fath. By December 1951, when Givenchy opened his own couture house, he had trained under Jacques Fath, Robert Piguet, Lucien Lelong and Elsa Schiaparelli. Vogue highlighted Givenchy's February 1952 debut collection, calling it "one of the most news-worthy happenings in Paris this spring."¹ The collection was notable for its emphasis on separates, including the crisp white Bettina blouse, modeled by Bettina Graziani. A version of the Bettina blouse is seen in this March 1952 Life magazine article on Givenchy's debut collection.

Evening dress
Hubert de Givenchy
Autumn-Winter 1968-69
Silk velvet, cockerel feathers
77.116.14
Gift of Mrs. Alfred Bloomingdale

Chanel day dress, c. 1937

Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel's (1883-1971) reputation is staked primarily on her exploration of menswear-inspired suits and her promotion of the understated little black dress. Though these creations are an important part of her aesthetic, her designs didn't always exude a strict less-is-more philosophy. Many of Chanel's evening wear designs, particularly during the 1920s and 1930s, glittered with embellishment. She also designed feminine, romantic day wear like the c. 1937 afternoon dress pictured here.

Afternoon dress
Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel
c. 1937
Gift of The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising
79.25.5

From the Archives: Discovering Counterfeit Chanel No. 5 in a Museum Collection

For the next two weeks, we'll be featuring posts from our extensive blog archives. Today's post was written by Meghan Hansen, FIDM Museum Registrar, in 2009. In this post, she dives into our fragrance archive with an investigation into a counterfeit Chanel No. 5 box and bottle.

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“Bathtub Perfume Traps Pool Shark”¹  “Pair Arrested in Sale of 11c Perfume for $15”²

These headlines suggest the rampant problem of piracy in the perfume industry, a criminal activity prevalent in any field in which luxury goods are involved. For an example of the legal battles that can ensue from the selling of pirated fashions, check out this New York Times blog post. Though Chanel’s fragrances were not the only French perfumes targeted by counterfeiters, Chanel No. 5 consistently turns up in smuggling arrests, counterfeit busts, and consumer warnings about cheap perfume scams. Chanel No. 5 has a cachet that everyone wants, but where does this reputation come from?

Counterfeit Chanel No. 5 Bottle and Box
c. 1950-1959
Gift of Annette Green
F2005.860.986AB

Fashion birthdays: Madeleine Vionnet

 

French couturier Madeleine Vionnet was born on this day in 1876. Born in Chilleurs-aux-Bois, about 75 miles from Paris, Vionnet was apprenticed to a local dressmaker at age 11. She spent several years in this first apprenticeship, moving to a small design house in Paris when she was 17. She later worked in London for several years, returning to Paris by 1901, where she worked first for Callot Soeurs and later for Doucet. In 1912, Vionnet opened her own salon, but closed the business at the beginning of World War I in 1914. After spending the war years in Italy, Vionnet returned to Paris and re-opened her couture house in 1918.

Though Vionnet began her training in the late 19th century, when artifice and decoration were the foundations of fashion, she developed a startlingly modern, deceptively simple approach to design. Many of her garments were based on simple geometric forms; square, circle or rectangle. The bias cut was integral to her work, and largely eliminated the need for shaping darts. Vionnet disliked corsets, and designed her garments to be worn without this confining undergarment. House models were encouraged to go without undergarments during fittings.

In honor of Vionnet's birthday, we're reposting a late 1930s Madeleine Vionnet evening gown embellished with metallic embroidery. We first posted this gown in October 2011, when the gown was on exhibit in the FABULOUS! exhibition. 

Evening gown
Madeleine Vionnet
c. 1936-1938
Museum Purchase, Funds provided by Mrs. Tonian Hohberg
2008.5.50AB

Reception dress, c. 1876

 

Reception dress
1876-77
Maison Touin, Paris
Silk faille, wool & silk brocade, linen lace
Gift of John Kauke
82.405.2AB

Made by a Paris dressmaker, this purple and cream reception dress could have walked right off a fashion plate. The styling and details are up to the minute, a reflection of high fashion c. 1876. Since the reign of Louis XIV in the late 17th century, Paris had been the fashion epicenter of the Western world. In 1858, when Charles Frederick Worth and business partner Otto Bobergh established Maison Worth et Bobergh at 7 Rue de la Paix, this street and its environs became the heart of Paris' fashion industry. Maison Touin, the house that created this dress, was located at 3 Rue Ventadour, only a few blocks away from the Rue de la Paix and well-within the stylish orbit of the famous street.

Yves Saint Laurent mini-dress, c. 1967

 

Yves Saint Laurent had a talent for translating street fashion into the vocabulary of the haute couture. He demonstrated this ability early, during his brief tenure as head designer at Christian Dior. Inspired by the bohemian students, artists and intellectuals who frequented the Left Bank of Paris, Saint Laurent designed the 1960 Beat collection. Filled with black clothing, including turtlenecks, leather suits and a mink-trimmed crocodile jacket, the collection was an affront to the refined sensibilities of haute couture clients and fashion editors. Though it led to Saint Laurent's departure from Christian Dior, the Beat collection was a glimpse into the future of fashion. Saint Laurent had recognized that the fashion dictates of the haute couture were becoming irrelevant. By combining elements of street style with haute couture production techniques, Saint Laurent energized an insular world.

Mini-dress
C. 1967
Yves Saint Laurent
Gift of Laura Jarre
99.384.1A-C

 

Bubble silhouette, 1958-59

 

Cocktail dress
1958-59
Gift of Steven Porterfield
S2007.897.8

In March 1958, Vogue lauded the new variety in fashionable silhouettes: "a whole lovely flight of new forms--winged, floating, or held slightly away from the body in some mysterious way. It is the variety of shapes that marks these Paris collections."¹ In the accompanying 20-page editorial, readers were introduced to St. Laurent's A-line trapeze dress for Dior, Cardin's bubble hem skirt suit, Madame Grès empire-waist chiffon day dress, and Chanel's slim, two-piece wool suit. The hodge-podge of silhouettes presented in the article suggests that Christian Dior's 1947 New Look silhouette was finally being surpassed by new approaches to the body. The 1958 Vogue article credited the availability of varied silhouettes to the body-skimming chemise dress, which had become popular the previous year.

Marlene Dietrich's evening shoes

 

The 20th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition opens next week! This year's exhibition showcases over 100 costumes from 20 films released in 2011. What's more, we're also featuring a selection of classic costumes from both the FIDM Museum collection and the Department of Recreation and Parks, City of Los Angeles, Historic Hollywood Collection. The exhibition runs from February 14th through April 28th and is open Tuesday – Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. As always, the exhibition is FREE. Information on booking a guided tour of the exhibition can be found here.

During the run of the exhibition, look forward to a series of blog posts about objects and costume designers featured in the exhibition. First up, a pair of Delman evening shoes worn by Marlene Dietrich. As the label on the insole indicates, these shoes were made "Especially For Marlene Dietrich." Eye and light-catching, we believe these glittering heels were worn by Dietrich during one of her popular 1950s nightclub appearances.

Evening Shoes
Worn by Marlene Dietrich, 1950s
Delman
Silk satin, glass rhinestones, marcasite, metallic cord & leather
Department of Recreation and Parks, City of Los Angeles/FIDM Museum
L88.1.213AB

Gloves in the 20th century

 

In contemporary fashion, gloves are generally overlooked. Warm knitted gloves keep our hands warm in winter, while sturdy canvas or leather gloves protect our hands during gardening or construction projects. Protective gloves (or sometimes mittens) fill an important role, but because they are primarily utilitarian, function often trumps design. Though brightly colored winter gloves are often cheerfully appealing, they aren't worn just for their appearance; if they aren't warm enough, you'll probably purchase a different pair. When was the last time you wore a pair of gloves simply because their elegance was overwhelming?

Evening gloves
c. 1952
Christian Dior, designer
Lionel Legrand, maker
Leather, rhinestone, bugle beads & sequins
Museum Purchase
2006.5.4AB