French Fashion Dolls in Washington and New York.

To learn the exquisitely-dressed fashion dolls of the Theatre de la Mode exist here in the United States was thrilling to me. (Although I have still only seen them in books and online.)

The Theatre de la Mode fashion dolls live at Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Washington.  I have older post links with in-depth history and details, which you'll see in a link below.  But, to continue - after reading about the creation of Theatre de la Mode, I coincidentally (without looking for it) found a book called Two Centuries of French Fashion, created and published by the Brooklyn Museum.

Astonishingly, the dolls in Two Centuries of French Fashion, seemed to be the same "ladies" from Theatre de la Mode (but in different attire).  I wrote a post about Two Centuries of French Fashion, which you can see there at the link.

"1900 Doll" from the Gratitude Train of 1947. High Style, Metropolitan Museum of Art, p.225.

Recently, I pulled another book from the library shelf - High Style: Masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art - and discovered the same French fashion mannequins again.  Reading High Style, the mystery became solved.

In summary, the Theatre de la Mode was a travelling exhibit created by many talented people chosen from fashion, textile, art, and theater industries under the supervision of the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.  The purpose of the exhibit was to promote French fashion, but that is not what makes Theatre de la Mode so impressive - its significance lies in the WWII conditions under which it was produced and in the beauty and precision that are evident in the display, despite the hardship its creators endured.

The fashion dolls acquired by Brooklyn Museum (and now housed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York) were created as gifts of appreciation from the people of France to the United States for its relief efforts following WWII.  In 1947, these fashion dolls arrived on a "Gratitude Train", full of gifts.  At that time, the Brooklyn Museum had opened a new Design Lab for fashion, so in 1949 the Chambre Syndicale deemed it the proper home for the Gratitude Train fashion dolls.  It seems The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired the Gratitude or Merci dolls in 2009.

According to the book High Style, (Jan Glier Reeder, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010, p.222), the Gratitude Train fashion dolls were based on the design of those created for Theatre de la Mode - so both groups of dolls were created by French illustrator Eliane Bonabel and Spanish sculptor Joan Rebull.

Learn more about both exhibits at the blue Two Centuries of French Fashion link above.  The Gratitude Train fashion mannequins may be viewed at this Metropolitan Museum of Art link.

  

Peek Inside the Miniature Rooms of Narcissa Niblack Thorne.

Oh Boy, how we underestimated the impressiveness of the Thorne Miniature Rooms at Art Institute of Chicago!  With 30 minutes till museum closing, my husband and I wandered into the museum depths to see the exhibit - expecting to see a dollhouse - but no.  These extremely-detailed and very attractive miniature marvels of interior design are set into the walls at eye level.  They were created with the artistic vision of Narcissa Niblack Thorne (Mrs. James Ward Thorne) and Art Institute of Chicago has 68 of them.

Image from Abbeville Press, Miniature Rooms: The Thorne Rooms at The Art Institute of Chicago.

I love this photo of her in a smock, pearls, and a hat - adding the fine touches to some small wonder.

Scurrying hurriedly from room to room, I imagined myself seated on the sofas and settees, chilling on the chaise lounges, owning all the clever bookshelves, and visualizing the views through every window.  Anxious about our limited time, I'd wandered from room to room on my own... where was my husband?  Thinking he'd vacated the perhaps-too-feminine premises, I searched outside the exhibit.  But when I called out to find him, he was still marveling at the miniature interiors.

Narcissa Niblack Thorne Miniature Room at Art Institute of Chicago.  Photo Toile La La.

Thorne Miniature Room at Art Institute of Chicago.  Photo Toile La La.

Thorne Miniature Room at Art Institute of Chicago.  Photo Toile La La.

Thorne Miniature Room at Art Institute of Chicago.  Photo Toile La La.

If I could shrink down to size, my idea of a good day spent inside the Thorne Rooms would be to gather some books from the rounded coffee-table bookshelf (top room) and study them outside in the sculpture garden.  Next, I would have a look inside the cabinet at left (second room down), then enjoy the view through those sunny yellow curtains of the third room.  Then, before a catnap, I would sketch and jot a few notes at the desk near the window of the lower room. Before reclining on the lounge you can barely see at right, I'd try out the bonnet on the hatstand.

You can see all 68 rooms too at this Art Institute of Chicago link.  Notice the enlargement option for the site - which enables you to experience all the worthwhile details.  After selecting the room you want to study, you'll see the enlargement option.

My photos above have a bit of glare and reflection, due to the glass casing, but the museum photos are immaculate.

Art Institute of Chicago, Thorne Miniature Room - New Hampshire Entrance Hall 1799.

Can you imagine descending this staircase dressed in your best hat and finery, ready to dance and dine?

At the museum link, see if you can spot within the English Drawing Room of The Georgian Period (1800)a harpsichord... with teeny-tiny moveable ivory keys.  If you like modern interiors, look for the French Library of The Modern Period from the 1930's or The California Hallway, circa 1940.

Ileana Ottini has some beautiful Thorne Miniature Room footage at this Youtube link.  There, you'll also learn about the Thorne Miniature Rooms in the collections of several other museums.

This Houston Chronicle Archives link has a very good article about Narcissa Niblack Thorne's miniature interiors.  (Cecile S. Holmes for Houston Chronicle - "The World in Miniature: Collector's Labor of Love...".

The blog Monkey Puzzle has photos of two more Thorne Miniature Rooms from the Phoenix Museum of Art.

Envisioning Italian Futurist Design in Dress of 1930's.

I was so excited to read essays describing 1930's clothing designs by Italian Futurists published in Against Fashion: Clothing as Art, 1850-1930 (Radu Stern, The MIT Press - 2004).

Essays included in Stern's book are:  Ernesto Thayaht's "The Aesthetics of Dress: Sunny Fashion, Futurist Fashion" (1930), Ernesto Thayaht's and Ruggero Michahelles' "Manifesto for the Transformation of Male Clothing" (1932), and Renato di Bosso's and Ignazio Scurto's "The Futurist Manifesto of the Italian Tie" (1933).


Reading the essays on dress, I wanted to see the clothing and ties visualized and described by the Italian Futurists - but unable to find their particular designs, I illustrated the garments - following the artistic direction and specifications in their words.

The 16 items in the Futurist series of dress were garments which they named themselves:  The Toraco, Camito, Corsante, Femorali, Conici, Ancali, Tubaria, Calzari and Calzali, Aeroscarpa, Scafa, Spiova, Asole, Paravista, Radiotelfo, Luca, and Trifermo.

Here's a brief description of the items, but you'll have to read the manifesto for the entire specifications - which include materials, shapes, number of buttons and pockets, closures, and sometimes color suggestions:

• Toraco - a sleeveless, low-necked undershirt.
• Camito - an "almost skintight" "antihinderance" shirt.
• Corsante - half-sleeve chest cover.
• Femorali - loose thigh cover.
• Conici - conical foot cover...cool colors in summer, warm colors in winter.
• Ancali - short hip cover for swim, training, or sport.
• Tubaria - self-fastening foot cover, fitting close at ankle.
• Calzari and Calzali - mesh foot covers.
• Aeroscarpa - breathable elastic shoes.
• Scafa - waterproof shoes.
• Spiova - waterproof, warm headcover with shoulder protection.
• Asole - summer cap with adjustable sun-shields.
• Paravista - eyeshade to attach to the Asole.
• Radiotelfo - "travel helmet" with radio and headphones.
• Luca - waterproof, reversible coat-like garment.
• Trifermo - overjacket with close fit at waist, convertible collar and inside pockets.

Recently, I wrote about Futurist Giacomo Balla's passionate color opinions.  Below, you'll see a color palette based on his writing.  When you read about the Futurist clothing and look at the sketches, try to visualize the garments in vividly saturated colors like these. Here's the link for my post with Balla's color descriptions.

Color palette based on Giacomo Balla's Futurist manifestos. Composed by Toile La La.

Italian Futurist Clothing and Accessory Designs - Interpreted by Toile La La.

Italian Futurist Clothing and Accessory Designs - Interpreted by Toile La La.

In contemplating the Conici, Tubaria, Calzari and Calzali, and the Aeroscarpa, I believe the Italian Futurists were addressing all the conditions feet encounter - and the concept of indoor versus outdoor footwear.  My versions depict the Conici as a washable cloth shoe to be worn at home; the Tubaria also as an indoor shoe, for the office perhaps - with built-in pockets for a key or coins; the Calzari and Calzali as mesh covers (with rubber soles) to slip over the Conici and Tubaria and keep the soles clean - or for extra durability; and the Aeroscarpa as a leather sock-type foot garment (elastic-backed) - that slips into a protective "shell" with rubber bottom and sides and leather strap closures. Strap closures would work like rollerblade or ski-boot latches. Latches would be composed of stainless steel, which would also tip the toe and heel with the gleam of metal.

Maybe the Aeroscarpa leather sock and shell could be worn separately too.

Italian Futurist Clothing and Accessory Designs - Interpreted by Toile La La.

Ernesto Thayaht's and Ruggero Michahelles' "Manifeso for the Transformation of Male Clothing" states:  "...we have to reduce to an indispensable minimum the number of items that are worn at the same time.  We have to reduce to an indispensable minimum the SPECIFIC WEIGHT OF EVERY PIECE OF CLOTHING, proportionally and in accordance with the climate.  We have to reduce to a strict minimum sewings, hems, and buttonholes (that is to say, the bill) of every item in the wardrobe in order to facilitate manufacturing, washing, ironing, folding; thereby diminishing the cost of production and increasing sales and the likelihood that every city dweller can change his clothes more often."

Thayaht's and Michahelles' clothing descriptions sound very much like sportswear and fitnesswear of today.  Their "Radiotelfo" sounds like a cap for transporting modern music devices.  And, Thayaht's  shoes ( "...two-tone shoes - fresh, youthful, and speedy...the unusual shape, which seems to emphasize the lightness of the advancing step...") seem like a description of today's Italian-manufactured trainers.
Renato di Bosso's and Ignazio Scurto's "The Futurist Manifesto of the Italian Tie" refers to ties as "slipknots" and "nooses", and urges men to dress "in a manly way", with a metal ornament (instead of a neck-encircling cloth tie) adorning the shirt.

They wrote:  "...a man's character should be expressed...through the brilliance and purity of metal", suggesting designs from aluminum, chrome, precious metals, brass, or copper - suspended on elastic cord. And they called this the ANTITIE.

Aluminum tie models, based on Italian Futurist designs of Renato di Bosso and Ignazio Scurto. Toile La La.

I cut small tie models from aluminum foil, but in thinking about larger versions of these - I wondered about the safety of larger versions in metal.  It seems metallicized leathers would have been suitable.  If Renato di Bosso and Ignazio Scurto ever produced any of their metal ties, wouldn't someone have kept a few - or were they just too avant garde for thirties sensibility?

Studying Early American history several years ago, I read about battles of the eighteenth century and discovered illustrations of military dress. Some officers wore metal plates at the breastbone called "gorgets", which might have been the type of ornament to please Renato di Bosso and Ignazio Scurto. Do you think they ever thought of this shape?  Most of the Futurist textiles utilized geometric shapes, so perhaps the crescent would have been viewed with disdain.

Gorget breastbone ornament. Model created by Toile La La.

Gorgets were crescent-shaped and inscribed with an officer's name or rank.
Note: You'll see in the above garment illustrations a small gorget-shaped Futurist tie placed with the "Corsante" (top row, third from left).

Loving the look of men in ties, I felt scolded after reading "The Futurist Manifesto of the Italian Tie" and thought men must have felt similar pangs of shame after learning of the corset's discomforts.   During my lifetime I've heard mens' tie complaints and didn't take them seriously, but take a moment to consider how long they've been protesting.

Nevertheless, I like the idea of men wearing gleaming metal antities.

Radu Stern's inclusion of these artists', designers', thinkers', and poets' essays in his book Against Fashion gives the reader a feeling of true conversation with the Italian Futurists.  This was a clothing design movement of which I was completely unaware, but Stern's book is informative and (for me) riveting.

If you have thoughts or information regarding clothing or textile designs of early twentieth century Italian Futurists, I would love to read your comments. 




 

Clothing and Color: The Opinionated Early Twentieth Century Italian Futurists.

Because of their strong vocalization of feelings about color, clothing, and hats I have an affinity for the early twentieth century Italian Futurists, although I am an advocate of peace, libraries, and museums - while they were outspokenly pro-violence and anti-anything-historical.

Giacomo Balla practically works himself into a frenzy in his 1900 "Male Futurist Dress: A Manifesto" and "The Antineutral Dress" of 1914, exhorting all ears to open their eyes to the superlatives of asymmetry in clothing.

Futurists, according to Balla, wanted to "abolish" striped, checked, and dotted clothes and felt that harmonious hues weakened the nerves and slowed the populace.

I'm fondest of Giacomo Balla when he waxes eloquent over color.  He categorizes gray as a "humiliating" color.  Balla wants to see fabrics that are "joyful", "iridescent", "illuminating", "enthusiastic", and "phosphorescent" - produced in "muscular", "strong-willed", "Violent, aggressive, imperative, and impetuous" color.

And now, best of all, listen to Giacomo Balla's list of colors he'd like to see in clothing:  "...wildly violet, very, very, very, very red" (yes, four veries)... but, here's the climax - "300,000 times green" (!), "20,000 times blue", (he starts to calm down a bit), "yellow, oraaange, scaaaaaarlet".  Yes, he really does spell orange with three letters "a" and scarlet with six letters "a".  Nearly, the same - but not quite, he restates his list:  "very vivid violets, the bloodred, the intense turqoise, the greenest of greens, vivid yellows, very colored oranges, and vermilions."

I thought there was not a soul on earth who could become more enraptured with the color spectrum than myself, but I was mistaken... because in Balla - I have met my superior.  In writing, he seems to roll in the throes of color passion.

Then there's "The Futurist Manifesto of the Italian Hat", written in 1933 by F. T. Marinetti, Francesco Monarchi, Enrico Prampolini, and Mino Somenzi - which paints a derogatory picture of the Italian squares, particularly in August - when, according to these fellows: " ...the black and gray hats of the passersby float sadly like excrement".  Harsh, I know, but they end on a positive note:  "Color! We need color to compete with the Italian sun."

And here Marinetti, Monarchi, Prampolini, and Somenzi present their proposal for a Futurist hat that will illuminate, signal to, defend and take care of man - as well as "speed him up, cheer him up, etc."
They actually compose a 20-item list of the types of hats to serve all these purposes:

• Speedy hat (for daily use)
• Night hat (for evening)
• Sumptuous hat (for parading)
• Aerial-sportive hat
• Sun hat
• Rain hat
• Mountaineering hat
• Marine hat
• Defensive hat
• Poetic hat
• Publicity hat
• Simultaneous hat
• Plastic hat
• Tactile hat
• Light-signaling hat
• Phonohat
• Radio-telephone hat
• Therapeutic hat (resin, camphor, menthol, circle moderating the cosmic rays)
• Auto-greeting hat (using a system of infrared rays) 

The twentieth hat they called for would ideally be capable of "genializing" their critics.

In many ways the Futurists were prescient - describing a desire for clothing that sounds much like modern fitnesswear.  Given the opportunity to see today's phone and music head-gear, I think they'd feel they were witnessing the materialization of the "radio-telephone hat" or "phonohat".

Spirited and imaginative, the Italian Futurismos certainly thought "out of the box".

Giacomo Balla's "Male Futurist Dress: A Manifesto", and "The Antineutral Dress" - and "The Futurist Manifesto of the Italian Hat", by F. T. Marinetti, Francesco Monarchi, Enrico Prampolini, and Mino Somenzi appear in Radu Stern's Against Fashion: Clothing as Art, 1850-1930. (2004 Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

Street Bard.

Downtown Denver, CO on August 10 - this traveling poet with a trolley and an old-school Underwood typewriter caught our interest.  Here's her signboard.

The signboard of poet Abigail Mott.  Photo Toile La La.

Undaunted by my photography, or the shuffling of passersby, or the panhandler hoping to divert our attention... Abigail Mott composed for us a custom-made poem, right there on the sidewalk - unaided by computer, dictionary, thesaurus, or anything - except her non-electric Underwood.

But it wasn't just her talent to spontaneously produce poetry (the words apparently transmitting
obstacle-free - head to fingers), it was the sight of her poetry-production that was also somehow significant.

Abigail Mott composing a poem in Denver, CO.  Photo Toile La La.

She looked as if she should be painted - at this age and that moment in time, with her leg crossed and fingers tapping  - and with people passing by and seeing her typing.

The poem-typing hands of Abigail Mott.  Photo Toile La La.

So, someday - when I'm not reading about art, fashion, and design - or sewing, or trying to organize all the books, fabric, thread, pencils, paint and boxes full-to-the-brim of artsy detritus (or walking my Good Luck Employee cat - on her leash)... perhaps I will paint the poet.  But, for now - I offer a sentence poem in return for the poem Abigail created for our family (which I won't share, because - after all, she created it especially for us).

Les Mots for Mott:  Street Bard Angel Poet Pulling Thought from a Word Piano, Tap Your Fingers,  Clack Your Keys Please for a Snapshot Paragraph.

Art Institute Chicago: Fashioning the Object

With its Fashioning the Object exhibit, Art Institute Chicago presents concrete evidence that fashion can be a valid art form.

Displaying works from designers Bless (Desiree Heiss, Ines Kaag), Boudicca (Zowie Broach, Brian Kirkby), and Sandra Backlund - Fashioning the Object, as an entire experience, is thought-provoking.  Reading the designer overviews, I liked Boudicca's description of their approach as "investigative rather than simply decorative" - and thought this aptly characterized the installations of all the designers in the exhibit.

Wandering through the Bless No. 45 Music curtain, visitors may touch and inspect objects hanging from chain curtains, which rustle and make sound.  Viewing and interacting with the Bless objects gave me the impression of discovering a fashion zoo, displaying exotic species rarely seen by man.

Within Boudicca's exhibit are many fascinating videos.  I especially liked the System Error presentation - and in particular the Solitary Dress, with pockets for hugging one's own self.

To have had more time to view the Boudicca videos completely would have been ideal, for I was intrigued by the time spent in their creation - and the subjects were fascinating to me - such as one focusing on the behavior of fabric on bodies of dancers in motion.

Sandra Backlund's installations were primarily knitted art to wear.  Her technique is very architecturally sculptural.  Imagine magnifying traditional stitches, making the stitches and features 50 to 100 percent larger.  I imagine wearing a Backlund creation would be like wearing the lightweight yarn version of an ornate Greco-Roman marble column or pediment.

See and hear Zoe Ryan, Art Institute of Chicago Curator of Design and Chair of Department of Architecture and Design, as she describes the Fashioning the Object exhibit and the work of these designers here (via Youtube clip).

Denver Art Museum's Fashion Studio

Stocked with fabrics, dress forms, mini design mannequins, magazines for inspiration collages, scissors, light-tables, coloring tools, (and for aspiring models: clothing, hats, a runway, and large mirrors), the Denver Art Museum Fashion Studio is a great playground for people interested in the creation of fashion and its presentation.

Even though my Colorado visit just barely missed Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective exhibit, DAM's Fashion Workshop helped bridge the gap. 

After spying the art supplies and magazines (and large, inviting, manila cardstock), I was anxious to return to the fashion space... though my thorough museum visits are notoriously excruciating to family members.  This museum visit was doubly pleasurable in that it offered the opportunity to create - within the stimulating museum environment.

Toile La La fantasy collage created in Denver Art Museum Fashion Studio. 

For some time now, my imagination has been consumed primarily by thoughts of hats - so this was an opportunity to have fun with some outlandish millinery designs.  Tearing through the provided architectural, fashion, home design, and interview magazines - I gathered a nice stack of images.

What you see above are (clockwise from the seated model with the rose hat): an idea for a "real, live, gigantic rose chapeau", a papier mache sculpture hat... composed of smiling Buddha faces, a rooster wig (that looks like a rooster... not FOR a rooster), a bright geranium red cardboard house bonnet - that ties under the chin, a "garden jumper" that grows real foliage (those are Kesha's feet wearing Y-3 socks and Kenzo shoes - which appeared in Interview magazine), an illuminating lamp hat, a "wacky" skirt, and a mannequin-look dress (with a nod to the Martin Margiela Semi-Couture collection).

There wasn't time to note all the collage sources - such as the graphic artist who created the great image I used for the "wacky skirt", but if you see an image you recognize - please leave a comment to enable me to give attribution to the artists and designers who inspired this collage.

Not only did the museum provide this great fashion workspace, it has also hosted fashion demonstration workshops in fashion illustration, styling, design and construction, upcycling, draping and patternmaking, and fashion design with Adobe Illustrator. There is still an upcoming Adobe illustration tutorial August 19 and later - a fashion illustration demonstration August 25 and 26 and September 1 and 2.

Thank you, Denver Art Museum.

• If you liked the collage, some of my older ones (incorporating watercolor) are at this link.
• There are also some collage-type paper dolls here.