Très Parisien, 1925, No. 9: Supplément. EN BATEAU. - Créations Anna 1925

Editor: This charming 1925 print, "Très Parisien, No. 9," by G-P. Joumard, features pen and ink and showcases three women in Art Deco dresses. I'm immediately drawn to the almost cartoonish quality and wonder, how do we look at the materials used and the broader context in which it was made? Curator: Consider the material reality of a fashion plate in the 1920s. These weren’t conceived as singular “art” objects, but as reproducible images designed to fuel consumption. Joumard’s pen strokes facilitated a specific *kind* of labor: enticing wealthy women to buy textiles and dresses. Think about the means of production – the printing presses, the distribution networks of magazines – and how these shaped what we now see framed in a museum. How does this shift your perception of the piece? Editor: It makes me think about the accessibility and function. It's less about individual expression, maybe, and more about the mechanics of fashion as industry. Are these dresses realistically made of lamé and silk? What can that say about consumerism? Curator: Precisely! Look at the stylized lines, the almost schematic representation of fabric and form. It isn't aiming for photorealism, but for suggestion. These "drawings" were templates and ideas to then be reproduced. How the *idea* of a dress is constructed. And about who can afford or access those "créations". How the raw materials—silk, gold thread—were sourced, produced, and consumed, as this all funneled into *that* economy. Editor: So, viewing this as less of an artwork and more as a piece of the fashion industry in the roaring twenties opens up a whole new way of seeing it, focused on material conditions and social access rather than artistic flair alone. Curator: Exactly. By understanding the economic framework, we see that "Très Parisien" offers insight into the production of desire itself.