Dimensions height 269 mm, width 180 mm
Curator: Look at this stylish lady! This ink drawing, dating back to 1922, is titled "Trés Parisien. La Mode, Le Chic, L’Elégance.” Editor: My goodness, it's wonderfully of its time, that confident, slightly haughty air. The strong lines and limited palette really make the overall silhouette pop. I am quite sure that this caricature must be inspired by Art Nouveau style, what do you think? Curator: Absolutely, the flowing lines in the fur detailing point right to that Art Nouveau influence, even if tempered with the sharper angles becoming popular at the time. I see it as more of an evocation of the chic Parisian woman, of this cultural moment in France following the trauma of WWI. Fashion became a tool for reinvention and cultural resilience. Editor: Yes, a powerful declaration of a forward looking era, using this fur-clad figure, in a somewhat subversive way! But there's something about the repeated teardrop shape. Is it merely decorative, or is there something more to it? Is this also an evocation of tragedy and sorrow for all who died during the war? Curator: Symbols in clothing and adornment often had coded meanings. Teardrops might reference sorrow but were also linked to wealth. The artist invites us to explore dualities—grief and prosperity, constraint and liberty, austerity and frivolity, all entangled after the Great War. In that sense, a cultural icon! Editor: It is interesting to ponder on what this kind of drawing represented for the rising feminist social movements that emerged at the time. As for the "Trés Parisien", who could resist the timeless allure of Parisian chic? Curator: It is also a powerful image on paper—light, but undeniably present! That interplay makes the piece stick in your memory. It offers many different layers and cultural meanings worth unpacking! Editor: I find myself now contemplating how visual culture shapes societal dreams and expectations. The chic image is a nice invitation for historical explorations, to be sure!
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.
Join the conversation
Join millions of artists and users on Artera today and experience the ultimate creative platform.
CollectMore like this
