Journal des Dames et des Modes, Costumes Parisiens, 1912, No. 28 : Tailleur de Velours (...) 1912

Curator: Right, let's consider this delightful fashion plate. It's from 1912, specifically plate number 28 of "Journal des Dames et des Modes, Costumes Parisiens," by Fernand Siméon. It is rendered with pen and watercolor, reproduced as a print. Editor: Oh, the way the artist uses light…it makes everything feel soft and almost dreamlike. Like stepping into a perfume advertisement, or some wealthy woman's daydream. The muted palette is working hard. Curator: Note how the subject gazes indirectly at herself, not really connecting. It’s a typical presentation, a self-possessed Parisian woman observing her reflection in what appears to be her boudoir. But she's not truly looking at herself. Her mind might be somewhere else. Editor: It is that “somewhere else” that I’m picking up on, exactly. There’s an emptiness in her eyes—or perhaps a boredom? Is she about to meet a lover, or off to the milliner? So many narratives subtly at play with this detached figure and a single costume! I think I like it even more the longer I look. Curator: The journal presented the height of chic, designed for aspirational consumption. Siméon employs a distinctive Art Nouveau sensibility in his prints; even here, in this seemingly straightforward domestic scene, he infuses this image with the symbolic weight of cultural ideals, a very codified and specific class and type, you could even argue. Editor: It almost mocks its own opulence though, right? The frumpy fur trim, that drab, blotchy wallpaper, even the shape of the mirror feels just slightly off in ways that give the picture an understated strangeness. Is this high fashion or the theater of it all? Curator: What endures is the echo of a world on the brink. Moments before World War One erupts. A world obsessed with appearance and novelty, yet oblivious to what awaits, but for now preserved. It’s what makes the work resonate far beyond simple period fashion. Editor: Absolutely, I’m leaving here thinking about impermanence…and whether I could actually pull off wearing that particular outfit!