Marionettes have always been a great fashion inspiration, so let's look today at very intriguing ones by a master puppet maker, craftsman Frank Paris.
Marionettes and puppets inspired him from a young age and at 13 he used to organise backyard shows for kids. When he moved to Los Angeles in the 1930s, he studied acting while working as a chauffeur and grocery bagger and, later on, used his training to put on puppet shows for children at Bullock's department store in downtown Los Angeles and also toured with the Olvera (Street) Puppeteers.
He went on to perform in New York's Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall and in Los Angeles at the Biltmore Bowl and the showroom of the Ambassador Hotel. Paris became more famous for creating the original Howdy Doody marionette for NBC's television program Puppet Playhouse in 1947 (taken off the air after six months when he got involved in a contract dispute with NBC). He moved to Hollywood in the 1960s and worked with Sid and Marty Krofft's Les Poupees de Paris, an elaborate puppet show performed on tour and at the 1964 World's Fair.
A genuinely remarkable artist, Paris created pieces inspired by a unique Art Deco style, some of them also part of important museum collections. He made gorgeous marionettes of actresses including Carmen Miranda and Mae West. Both were extremely elaborate: Carmen Miranda's puppet was 3 -foot-high and boasted a satin skirt outfitted with 4,000 sequins, while Mae West's was dressed in a black & silver sequined gown ending in an abundance of ostrich feathers, with layers of crinoline underneath. The details were extraordinary and both the marionettes were accessorised with multiple jewels.
Paris' creations appeared in films and on television, and some are included in collections at the Smithsonian Institution and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The Detroit Institute of Arts preserves three of his marionettes, all from 1937, representing American-born French entertainer Josephine Baker, Norwegian ice skater Sonja Henie and a skeleton. Both Baker and Henie's marionettes are dressed in beautiful costumes with feather elements and sparkling sequins, while the skeleton wears a fuchsia hat with matching gloves and high-heeled shoes. Paris always paid attention to makeup and the skeleton has rosy cheeks, mascaraed eyelashes and a tiny heart on the right cheek. The lesson to take away from Frank Paris' marionettes? Attention to detail is paramount and that's valid not only for fashion, but for all kinds of disciplines.
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