Elizabeth L. Block - Dressing Up: The Women Who Influenced French Fashion

DRESSING UP

________

THE WOMEN WHO INFLUENCED FRENCH FASHION

ELIZABETH L. BLOCK

THE MIT PRESS

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

LONDON, ENGLAND

2021 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.

The MIT Press would like to thank the anonymous peer reviewers who provided comments on drafts of this book. The generous work of academic experts is essential for establishing the authority and quality of our publications. We acknowledge with gratitude the contributions of these otherwise uncredited readers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Block, Elizabeth L., author.

Title: Dressing up : the women who influenced French fashion / Elizabeth L. Block.

Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020036772 | ISBN 9780262045841 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: FashionUnited StatesHistory19th century. | FashionFranceHistory19th century. | Womens clothing industryFranceHistory19th century. | Women consumersUnited StatesHistory19th century. | Affluent consumersUnited StatesHistory19th century. | United StatesSocial life and customs18651918.

Classification: LCC GT610 .B56 2021 | DDC 391.00973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020036772

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For Judith M. Block, Dr. Michael J. Block, Seth R. Friedman,
Abbott Ruthson Block Friedman, Jennifer Block Martin, and Dr. Eric M. Block

List of Figures

House of Worth (French, 18581956). Evening dress, ca. 1898. Worn by Edith Kingdon Gould in portrait by Thobald Chartran (). Private family collection.

Thobald Chartran (French, 18491907).Edith Kingdon Gould, 1898. Oil on canvas. Private family collection. Photograph by Bruce M. White 2016. Image: courtesy Lyndhurst.

Olympe Boisse (Canadian, 18311909; known as Madame Olympe). Evening dress, ca. 1865. Silk, mother-of-pearl. Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. H. E. Rifflard, 1932 (2009.300.3009ad). Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Charles Frederick Worth (French [b. England], 18251895) for Worth et Bobergh (French, 18571870). Ensemble, 18621865. Silk. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Designated Purchase Fund, 1987 (2009.300.1372ad). Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Dry goods store picture card, nineteenth century. Courtesy of Historic New England.

Opening Day at Lord and Taylors Store, Broadway and 20th Street.Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper, January 11, 1873. Image: Library of Congress.

Jules Chret (French, 18361932).Grands magasins de la paix, Paris, 1879. Bibliothque nationale de France, Paris (VA-236 [E]-FOL). Image: Bibliothque nationale de France, Paris.

Advertisement forFrank Leslies Ladys Magazine and Gazette of Fashions, 1870. Image: American Antiquarian Society.

Centennial Photographic Company. Display of corsets by Farcy and Oppenheim and P. Lenoir at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1876. Silver albumen print. Image: Free Library of Philadelphia (c020859).

Adle Anas Colin-Toudouze (French, 18221899).Toilettes de Mme Brant-CastelLa Mode illustre, 1883. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (RP-P-20093704). Image: Rijksmuseum.

Adolphe Sandoz (b. Ukraine, ca. 1845; active in Paris).House of Worth Satin DressHarpers Bazar, March 17, 1894.

Bonnet. French, 1883. Silk, beads, feathers, wire. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mrs. Francis Howard and Mrs. Avery Robinson, 1953 (C.I.53.68.4). Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Sale Room on the Ground Floor of Lenthric, 245, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honor,New York Herald(Paris ed.), December 21, 1893. Image: Bibliothque nationale de France, Paris.

Shampooing in the American and French Styles at Lntheric.New York Herald(Paris ed.), December 21, 1893. Image: Bibliothque nationale de France, Paris.

The Florists Workroom at Lntheric.New York Herald(Paris ed.), December 21, 1893. Image: Bibliothque nationale de France, Paris.

Costumes by Landoulf, Coiffures by Lenthric,Le Figaro-Graphic, January 25, 1892. Image: Bibliothque nationale de France, Paris.

Cover ofHarpers Bazar, March 5, 1898, showing designs by maison Flix and by Lenthric.

House of Worth, 7, rue de la Paix. M. Griffith, Paris Dressmakers,Strand Magazine, JulyDecember 1894.

John Everett Millais (British, 18291896).Mary Endicott Chamberlain, ca. 1890. Oil on canvas, 134.1102.4 cm. Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (1989P60). Image: Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery.

House of Worth. Gray silk satin and velvet day dress, 1890. Worn by Mary Endicott Chamberlain in portrait by John Everett Millais (). Fashion Museum, Bath, England (I.09.1342 + A). Image: Fashion Museum, Bath / Bridgeman Images.

John Singer Sargent (U.S., 18561925).Mary Crowninshield Endicott Chamberlain (Mrs. Joseph Chamberlain), 1902. Oil on canvas, 150.583.8 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Gift of the sitter, Mary Endicott Chamberlain Carnegie (1958.2.1). Image: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

The Marquise and Her Coiffeur, in Theodore Child,The Praise of Paris(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1893). New York Public Library, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection (b17239250). Image: New York Public Library.

N. Rodrigues (French, active from at least 1875 to 1879). Dinner dress, blue-green silk satin brocade with woven pattern of red roses, late 1870s. Collection of The Kyoto Costume Institute, photo by Takashi Hatakeyama.

Cover of piano sheet music by Domenico Ferroni.La Parisienne de Paris. Valse de lexposition 1900. Marche du nouveau siecle(Paris: Valisi & Giorgi, 1900). Image: Paul van Kuik.

Jeanne Paquin (French, 18691936) for the House of Paquin (French, 18911956). Evening suit, late 1890s. Silk. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Miss Marie Reimer, 1948 (C.I.48.70.1a,b). Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

House of Worth display, Palais des fils, tissus, et vtements, Exposition universelle, Paris, 1900. In Ren