Théâtre de la Mode : fashion dolls : the survival of haute couture
Edmonde Charles-Roux (Author), Herbert R. Lottman (Author), Stanley Garfinkel (Author), Nadine Gasc (Author), Colleen Schafroth (Author), Betty Long-Schleif (Author), David Seidner (Author, Photographer), Susan Train (Editor), Eugene Clarence Braun-Munk (Editor)
Liberation in the fall of 1944 after four years of foreign Occupation found Paris surviving on minimal resources. Hoping to make a statement to the world that Paris was still the center of fashion, couturiers, jewelers, milliners, hairdressers, and theatre designers joined together to present the Théâtre de la Mode. Using the ages-old tradition of traveling miniature mannequins dressed in current couture, the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture mobilized a whole industry with unprecedented cooperation and creativity to prove that life could begin again through these 27" tall ambassadors of fashion. The exhibition, inaugurated in Paris in March 1945, began a long journey, first to other capitals in Europe and Great Britain, then in 1946 to the United States. When the little ambassadors had served their mission, their valuable jewelry was sent back to Paris and they were abandoned, packed away in the basement of a department store in San Francisco. Paul Verdier and Alma Spreckels rescued them in 1952, and arranged for them to be sent to the Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Washington. They were exhibited behind glass, appreciated by only limited audiences unitl "rediscovered" by historian Stanley Garfinkel in 1983. The first edition of this catalogue recounts the Théâtre de la Mode's journey from conception to renewal. This revised edition adds the events of 1990 to the present, and includes photos of the 1988-1990 research and conservation in Paris. Also new are large color photos of the re-created décors, shown with the original sets and their design concepts, and first-time photos of the replicated jewels. As an added bonus, the individual mannequin photographs in the "catalogue raisonné" have been enlarged so all can enjoy their incredible couture details. The Théâtre de la Mode continues to be a story of hope and survival. Its message is timeless--back cover
Print Book, English, 2002
Second revised edition
Palmer/Pletsch Publishing, Portland, Oregon, 2002