Model in een jurk van de Wiener Werkstätte 1920 - 1930

Curator: Isn’t this just precious? I adore the whimsy in this early photograph of a young girl in her playful Wiener Werkstätte dress. The print dates from the 1920s or 30s and lives here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: It certainly captures a specific moment, doesn’t it? But it also feels… curated. Look at the girl’s posture, almost posed, as though frozen mid-pirouette. The gelatin silver print process lends itself to crisp lines, but I wonder about the implications here of innocence versus performance. Curator: Precisely! It's a formal portrait, but the subject seems happily suspended between being a proper young lady and giving herself over to childlike freedom. And the dress, designed by the famed Wiener Werkstätte, really sets it off with that flower embellishment. To me, it has the sweetness of childhood with a little something unsettling lurking in the background. Editor: The Werkstätte was undoubtedly influential. Yet, there’s something about placing children at the nexus of fashion and design that makes me a little queasy. Who does this dress serve? Is it about expressing youthful exuberance, or reinforcing existing class structures in the early 20th century? Curator: Oof, yes, definitely good to consider. I imagine this must have been a very specific status symbol. Even now, I can imagine someone dressing their little one like this as some show of their artistic aspirations. But it’s also just plain joyful. Look at the dotted patterns dancing around the skirt – they are giving strawberry ice cream, if you ask me! Editor: It’s also how photographic portraiture often idealized childhood as a fleeting period of purity. As a political gesture, it reminds me to stay vigilant, to look past the surface of charm and consider the deeper power structures shaping how we perceive childhood. Curator: Good food for thought. It can be beautiful and maybe a bit… complicated? Editor: Exactly. Even one cute dress has a whole network of references.