portrait
art-deco
figuration
cityscape
genre-painting
modernism
Dimensions height 269 mm, width 180 mm
This print, titled "Très Parisien. La Mode, Le Chic, L’Elégance," comes from a 1923 issue of a Parisian fashion magazine. We see the depiction of an elegant women's suit, described as wool brocade with a crimped, singed texture, trimmed with sable. What's interesting here is the way that these labor-intensive textile processes are presented as the height of nonchalant chic. Brocade requires specialized looms, and crimping or singeing the fabric would have added further to its expense, while the sable trim is a luxury in itself. It's a world of extreme labor, all consumed by the wealthy. The print itself, with its delicate lines and careful coloring, mimics the ethos of the clothing. Though it's a mass-produced image, intended for a wide audience, it sells a vision of exclusivity and aspiration, one thread in the complex tapestry of early 20th-century consumer culture. This work prompts us to consider the immense amount of human effort and artistry behind even seemingly simple objects.
Comments
Très Parisien promoted itself as chic and elegant. Between 1920 and 1936 it presented creations by such couturiers as Chéruit, Premet, Philip et Gaston, and Lanvin. The young, svelte models are all ultra-modern, shown talking on the phone, smoking and playing tennis. The illustrations also show that over the course of the 1920s, skirt lengths had risen to just below the knee, before dropping back down to calf length in the 1930s. The small plates were printed on transparent paper using a stencilling technique known as en pochoir and then hand coloured; many of them are unsigned. The signature ‘Joujou’ belonged to Germaine Paule Joumard, who was the director of Très Parisien, as well as one of the magazine’s illustrators.
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