dresses for princesses - victoria and albert...

Christian Dior’s New Look seemed to symbolise the arrival of a bravenew fashion world when it hit thecatwalk in 1947. But as the V&A’snew blockbuster reveals, couture’spost-war golden age marked the lastblast of an old aristocratic orderbefore the fashion revolution of the 1960s. Suzy Menkes reports

Left: Pierre Balmain,early 1950s, whitesilk organza,feathers andrhinestones. Right:Cristobal Balenciaga,c.1955, scarlet silkand silk taffeta. Both© V&A Images

Couture

V&A Magazine Winter 2007 V&A Magazine Winter 2007 39www.vam.ac.uk38

Dresses for princesses

Right: Christian Diorwith his housemodel Renee, c.1957,photographed byHenry Clarke © Condé NastArchive/Corbis, allrights reserved.Below: Zémiremodelled by Renee,Paris, 1954,photographed byRegina Relang © V&A Images. Facingpage: coats byMolyneux and HardyAmies, worn byBarbara Goalen andWenda Parkinson(née Rogerson), 1948© Norman ParkinsonArchive, London

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The dress is Red Riding Hood scarlet, its gleaming satin skirtspreading under an elongated jacket. It speaks of glamour anddash, of history and haute elegance. And who could havebelieved that this Christian Dior gown was made while Pariswas still licking the wounds of war? Or that the magisterialensemble had been fished out of a damp cellar seeping withwater from the River Seine?

Zémire, the V&A’s historic Dior find from 1954, is the star of‘The Golden Age of Couture’. But the new exhibition has asubtext: ‘Paris and London 1947-1957’. In its sober tweed suits,its twirling, wasp-waist dresses and its substantial, sculptedundergarments, it is designed to get under the skin of thoseclothes whose firm silhouettes identified the post-war period –on both sides of the channel.

The title suggests a wistful nostalgia for a distant past. Itseems like a mirror image of the ‘Silver Screen’ years, whenHollywood possessed an impossible glamour that scintillatedfor movie stars far removed from “real” people. Yet it is onlyhalf a century since 1957, when the death of Christian Diorbrought to an end not just the decade ruled by the Parisiancouturier, but couture itself, as it was understood and used bya wealthy clientele to create a personally-fitted wardrobe.

Few of the London designers such as John Cavanagh orLachasse have names with any resonance today. And althoughParis couture is still just alive, it is now focused on brandingand image management, rather than dressing a specific socialcircle. Both Hollywood and high fashion grew out of war anddepression. But whereas movies were the great leap forward inentertainment and cultural artistry, couture was built onnostalgia. Dior himself was inspired by the dove grey eleganceof his Edwardian mother, and the women of the New Worldwho turned to Paris were aiming to create, as wives of

In the summer of 2006, on a research trip to a Paris auctionhouse, Claire Wilcox, curator of ‘The Golden Age of Couture’,stumbled upon a ragged, faded red jacket and dress, hangingforlornly on a mannequin.

After years in a cellar under the River Seine, the piece was acrumpled and dirty mess. But Claire recognised it as an early1950s Christian Dior dress called Zémire. It was anastonishing discovery: “I knew it was a lost masterpiece andwould be a tremendously important acquisition and exhibit”.And it marked the start of an extraordinary journey by V&Acurators and conservators. They spent more than twelvemonths piecing together its history and transforming it from apile of rags into a showstopper.

How the V&A’s conservators turned a ragged Dior classic into the belle of the ball. By Kate Jazwinski

Vital clues about Zémire’s identity andhistory were found on a handwrittenlabel. The name Sekers indicated thatthe dress was made for leading Britishtextile manufacturer Miki Sekers. ForWilcox, this connection gave thegarment even more significance andwas an explicit link between the fashionworlds of Paris and London: “The Zémirebrought together the leading Frenchdesigner of the decade, Dior, with one ofthe UK’s most innovative textilemanufacturers.”

National press coverage of the V&A’sacquisition attracted the attention ofthe Sekers family, who confirmed thatZémire had been commissioned by LadySekers and produced a 1953 Sekersbrochure. This contained a star sampleof an innovative new fabric calledcellulose acetate, in the same bright redas the textile used for Zémire. Thefamily also revealed that Lady Sekersdetested couture fittings and oftenabandoned commissions, which mayaccount for the dress’s presence in aParis auction house cellar.

Couture:conservation

Above: Dior Bar suit,1947, photographedby Willy Maywald © Association WillyMaywald/ADAGP, Parisand DACS, London2007. Right: MissVirginia Lachassedoll, with fullyaccessorised 1954winter couturewardrobe, designedby Owen at Lachesse© Museum ofCostume, Bath/V&AImages

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America’s new rich, the social clout of an old aristocraticworld.

The exhibition that Claire Wilcox has put together – mostlyfrom the V&A’s own archive – covers the last gasp of socialorder in Great Britain before stylistic mayhem broke looseduring the swinging London of the 1960s. The British clothesare decorous, sensible, designed to dress upper-crust ladies forthe “season” – that round of social entertainment that lastedfrom April to July and was heavy on horsey events such asRoyal Ascot and the Derby. A Digby Morton stern tweed suitof 1954, photographed with a riding crop as optionalaccessory, was never going to frighten the horses or hint atfashion frivolity. Although Miss Virginia Lachasse, a couturedoll used in a 1954 touring exhibition to raise money for theblind, showed a more spiffy side. Her miniature wardrobeincluded a tweed travelling suit, a mini mink coat and anassortment of gloves, girdles and the coveted nylon stockings.

“Clothes which have social confidence… but lack superbdrama,” said editor Alison Settle to define the differencebetween the sensible approach of British designers and thegreat romantic sweeps of Dior or Cristobal Balenciaga’sarchitectural rigour. We can see with hindsight that the self-same politeness and convention of a class-ridden societystoked the pressure cooker that created the explosion of ready-to-wear fashion in the 1960s. Women of the 1950s had beengiven a heady taste of freedom in the war years, but they hadgrown up with the adage that “the English woman is so refined– she has no bosom and no behind”. It was, therefore, thefollowing generation which blew off the lid, challengedsociety, embraced sexual allure and kicked against thepredominance of Paris. By contrast, the more political youthquake in Paris in 1968 never swept away haute couture – evenif Balenciaga closed his house saying “it’s a dog’s life” and CocoChanel retreated to the stairs of her couture mansion, a benttwig of an old woman in her flat hat and thick tweeds.

Parisian haute couture adapted to the new prêt-à-porterfashion regime, with ready-to-wear stars such as Karl Lagerfeldand ultimately Jean Paul Gaultier prepared to embrace thearcane art that still fascinates British-trained John Galliano ashe works at Dior today. The difference between London andParis was evident in those post-war years. When PrincessMargaret, then a royal fashion icon, chose a Dior dress with atiny waist and spreading skirt, it was because she yearned forthe transforming power of fashion – a dress whichencompassed the hopes and dreams of a young girl on the cuspof womanhood.

Cecil Beaton, court photographer and social commentator,called Dior the “Watteau of fashion”. And Edna WoodmanChase, editor of American Vogue from 1941 to 1952, said of theFrench designer: “His clothes gave women the feeling of beingcharmingly costumed; there was a faintly romantic flavourabout them.” Dior himself said of his ground-breaking 1947New Look with its long, full swathes of skirt: “Girls couldsafely feel that they had all the trapping of a fairy-taleprincess… a golden age seemed to have come again.”

British designer Norman Hartnell took the same hearts-and-flowers approach, yet his gowns for the young QueenElizabeth, Margaret’s older sister, were weighed down withsymbolism that he described lyrically in his 1955 biographySilver and Gold. For a Gallic royal visit, Hartnell created a dress

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Our Cinderella dress

The Zémire story…The origin of the dressThe Zémire was the highlight ofChristian Dior’s 1954 autumn/wintercollection. It is one of his mostconsciously historical designs– theriding jacket has a distinctly eighteenth-century flavour. The V&A’s version is theonly known copy of the original, in greysilk with fur trim cuffs, which was one of a selection presented to PrincessMargaret in 1954 at Blenheim Palace(above). All conservation photographs © V&A Images

The dress arrives at the V&AFrances Hartog, V&A textile conservator,couldn’t believe the state of the Zémirewhen it arrived at the museum. “It was amess. The skirt and jacket were heavilycreased, there was brown water stainingand it all had the consistency ofcardboard.” She and her colleagues areresponsible for the dress’s incredibletransformation. The process requiredforensic skills. There were no otherexamples of this costume and nopattern could be sourced, which meantconjecture and deduction were requiredto re-create the original Dior design.

“Zémire is a symbol of the entire ‘Golden Age’ show, epitomising the art and craftsmanship of the era”

Couture:conservation


“Dior’s exceptional talentwas to create outfits, rootedin historicism, which stillcaught a fashion moment”

The jacket is hand-washed and quicklydried – although there is colour run, asthe tests had predicted, the pink retainsits vibrancy.

CleaningThe first dilemma was how to clean adress that needed a good scrubbing.Tiny samples of material were tested tosee how the aged cellulose acetate andother fabrics would react to differentwashing solutions. The costumecontains five different types of material(including an interlining made of linenand hair), which provided a complexchallenge. Cleaning in water can causecolours to run and fabrics to distort orshrink, and can weaken aged fibres, allresulting in permanent damage.

Because cellulose acetate is a semi-synthetic, the fabric had to be carefullysteamed to remove the creases.

ConservationConservators don’t usually take acostume apart, but the waist of the skirthad been drastically altered. Re-creatingDior’s vision required painstakingreconstruction, using archive fashionphotographs. The only other clues werecryptic chalk marks on the inside of theskirt. Frances made a copy of the skirt incalico and reconstructed it four times tocrack the code of the original pleatwork.

Chalk marks which Frances believesindicated Dior’s original pleats.

After many attempts, the 5.11m offabric were gathered into the 69cmwaist, re-creating the originaldistinctive full shape.

The finished pieceZémire is a symbol of the entire‘Golden Age’ show, epitomisingthe art and craftsmanship ofthe era.

Above: Christian Dior (in white)commenting on a gown prior toits first showing. Photo: LoomisDean/Time Life Pictures/GettyImages

called Flowers of the Fields of France with embroidery ofpoppies, wheat stalks, fleur-de-lys and symbolic Napoleonicbees. One wonders what the sophisticated and fashion-awareFrench thought of this hefty gown compared with the approvalthey gave to the Queen Mother’s pre-war Paris wardrobe,presented through the lens of Beaton.

It is thanks to the stylish photographer that the V&A has somany marvellous gowns. For his 1971 exhibition ‘Fashion: AnAnthology’, Beaton coerced society ladies to part with couturecreations. His establishment reach drew donations from LadyAstor, Evangeline Bruce, wife of the then Americanambassador, the Countess of Drogheda and the Queen herself.The show of 450 pieces drew 80,000 visitors. Mark Jones,director of the V&A, says that those clothes, preserved forposterity, “provide a unique window on to post-war Paris andLondon couture”. Beaton is just one of the photographers whocreated vivid images of post-war fashion. His indelible 1941vision of a model in a Digby Morton suit surveying the rubbleof bombed London suggested the solidity of fashion in achanged world. Other compelling images include RichardAvedon’s exotic 1955 view of model Dovima stroking elephantsin an elegant dress by Yves Saint Laurent for Dior. While WillyMaywald captured on a Paris street Dior’s New Lookmasterpiece: the 1955 Bar waisted jacket and full skirt.

Was it inevitable that almost forgotten British names shouldmark a particular era, while so many Paris houses continue tobe public currency? After all, many of those London-baseddesigners were trained in Paris. (Assistant curator Eleri Lynnhas produced for the exhibition a fascinating “fashion familytree”.) Hardy Amies, whose precise tailoring is the backbone ofBritish couture, managed to creep into the internationallimelight. Hartnell would probably have been more successfulhad he not been so blinded by the romance of royalty. In hisloyalty to the duchess class, his early architectural clothesmelted into a meringue sweetness. But the truth is that manyParis houses have also faded into near oblivion, in spite of allthe money investors have poured in – not least with thecurrent wave of private equity. Hedge fund managers areinterested in high-profit ancillary products such as fragrance,bags and other accessories that dominate the couture housewindows – even at Dior.

It is a rare designer who can create the aura which translatesinto a distinctive image, and few British designers have hadthe soaring imagination that turns fashion into art – and into abuck. Claire Wilcox recognises this and gives the Parisiandesigners – especially Dior and Balenciaga – their due asmarket leaders. By vigorously exploring the insideworkmanship, couture can be seen as a craft as well as an art.

Dior’s exceptional talent was to create outfits, rooted inhistoricism, which still caught a fashion moment. That Zémireoutfit has become a beacon of style – not least because of thededicated work in the V&A restoration department. But evenwith tatters and stains, its bravura and dash would light hautecouture’s eternal flame.

Suzy Menkes is fashion editor of the International HeraldTribune

‘The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-1957’, V&A,London SW7 (020 7942 2000, www.vam.ac.uk), until 6 January


Couture Facing page: Dovimawith Elephants,Evening Dress byDior, Cirque d’Hiver,Paris, France byRichard Avedon,1955. © The RichardAvedon Foundation.Left: Fashion isIndestructible byCecil Beaton © Cecil BeatonArchive, Sotheby’s.Below: modelBarbara Goalenphotographed byJohn French © V&A Images

“Few British designers have had the soaring imagination that turns fashion into art – and into a buck”

dresses for princesses - victoria and albert...

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