Despite having quite a few ideas in the last months for my I.P.F.O. (Identified Pilfered Fashion Object) column, I sort of left them behind to give more space to other topics.
Yet since haute couture week took place, my urge to resume it has become stronger.
You may have noticed in Chanel's collection a golden yellow dress with a sort of silvery sequinned embroidery on the front that seemed to represent a mass of clouds with some Rococo-swirls and a few silvery threads – probably sunbeams – coming out of the clouds.
Those of you who can spot in it echoes of Elsa Schiaparelli's fuchsia “Phoebus” cape that featured a large embroidery of a sequinned golden sun (part of the 1938 Winter collection called "Cosmique" – see previous post) aren’t probably on the wrong path, but will still have to go backward in time of a few more decades to spot what may be the original inspiration behind this design.
If we had a time machine we could in fact set our date counter on 19th May 1909 when the Ballets Russes debuted in Paris at the Théâtre du Chatelet with Le Pavillon d'Armide.
Based on a story by Théophile Gaultier, the ballet narrated the vicissitudes of a young man who, caught by a sudden storm, is given shelter by a mysterious Marchioness who lives in a pavilion in which a tapestry of Armida and her court is hung.
While staying here, the young man is visited by a strange dream in which the tapestry comes to life and he turns into Armida's beloved Rinaldo.
Upon waking, the young man finds Armida's shawl next to him and realises that the vision he had didn’t come to him in a dream, but he was bewitched by his host.
The costumes for this ballet were designed by painter, stage designer, illustrator, art journalist and critic Alexandre Benois, also known as the spiritual leader of the Russian group called “Mir iskusstva” (World of Art), originally inspired by a literary magazine and formed with the intent of supporting and spreading art and beauty.
Though based in St. Petersburg, Benois was of Italian, French and German descent.
He was very knowledgeable and endowed with impeccable taste. Often influenced by Baroque and Rococo and Russian art and history, he was also an admirer of E.T.A. Hoffmann's works.
It was Benois who designed the costumes for Le Pavillon d'Armide, first staged in 1907 in St. Petersburg, and then replicated in Paris two years later.
The ballet was very successful since it also featured Nijinsky as Armida's slave, but what contributed to the ballet’s triumph were probably the costumes inspired by the 18th century and in particular by the reign of Louis XIV.
Let’s focus in particular on three designs: two costumes worn by the Courtiers and the costume for the Génie des Heures.
One of the courtiers wore a pale pink silk jacket with a gold lame border matched with a bright pink tunic with a golden fringe and an appliquéd sun of gold lame soutage and brocade (the original inspiration for Schiaparelli's cape? Who knows), worn with a white shirt, and accessorised with a fancy feathery hat.
The other Courtier wore a costume inspired to the attire of a Roman general that featured a woollen muslin bodice with a chest armour-like appliquéd gold lame, sautage and ribbon motif representing a sun and a few clouds, matched with a golden belt, a short white silk skirt with a golden fringe and open sleeves of red silk and gold lame on white calico.
The costume for the Génie des Heures featured a yellow flannel justacorps with gold lame cuffs and hand-painted silver Rococo arabesques and appliquéd gold tassels.
A gold lame waistcoat attached to a tonnelet of gold lame and black silk edged with a gold fringe completed the costume.
Now, imagine a dress made using the yellow nuance of the Génie des Heures' costume, put on it the sun/cloud motifs seen on the Courtiers’ costumes and you, more or less, get the design from Chanel's haute couture Spring/Summer 2010 collection mentioned at the beginning of this post.
Yes, point taken, luckily not all the designs that are on the runways today are directly pilfered from Schiaparelli’s or from ballets, theatre or opera costumes from the early decades of the last century and, in our superficial world that doesn't really care about tracing back influences and inspirations, such comparisons are probably seen as far-fetched and useless.
Yet I find intriguingly irresistible to spot similarities between fashion and stage costumes, after all haute couture creations are just rather "theatrical" versions of ready-to-wear designs.
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