Sunday, March 20, 2016

Fashion turning point
























"In the Spring of 1908, three women walked onto the Longchamp racecourse in Paris and jaws dropped. The elite society event was known for debuting the latest couture creations to the public, but no one had seen fashion quite like this before. Dressed in blue, white and havane brown creations, according to newspapers, spectators called the three women a “monstrosity”, accused them of being semi-naked and showing revolting décolletage. It was these three dresses however, which would forever change fashion that day and launch the twentieth century silhouette. As for the designer? Well, no one really bothered to remember her name…

But perhaps you might like to know who it was. I’ve come across and admired these photographs around the net before, not knowing there was a story or a particular name behind the fashion. But Margaine-Lacroix was her name, a young Parisian designer who had taken over her mother’s long established old couture house and was starting to gain popularity in turn-of-the-century Paris for her lightly corseted dresses featuring minimum boning and more elastic material.

Long before Lycra or Spanx came along, she soon began making dresses made from stretchy elastic silk jersey, outlining the hips and thighs and slimming the figure. To debut her creations to society, she hired three beautiful models and chose the Parisian racetracks of 1908 as her catwalk..."

EDIT: go to link and scroll down to see a fun picture of their fellow horse race-attenders' reactions.

http://www.messynessychic.com/2016/02/02/the-belle-epoque-body-con-dress-that-was-too-sexy-for-paris/

16 comments:

edutcher said...

As with a lot of French fashion, it was only useful to a young woman of slim proportions.

Anyone a bit more womanly wouldn't look so good.

ricpic said...

Wow, did those turn of the century dresses ever show off a woman's figure to maximum advantage!

felinda gospi said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
rhhardin said...

Everything needed ironing.

The Dude said...

Who is felinda gospi and did anyone click on those links? Looks suspicious.

Chip Ahoy said...

I just now read what Jersey silk is, and vicariously and by osmosis learned what silk viscose is. (Those words appeared in Amazon comments about scarves. "It's not silk! It's viscose.") I thought it meant "lighter" because all those are shear. And now I totally got this. It's on. Bring it. I'll take "Silk" for 1,000, Alex. I'm going to sweep this category.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Did anyone tell the girls at Downton?

Dad Bones said...

Somebody should design a burqa in that fashion, although it would probably cost the designer his or her life.

Methadras said...

mmm, me likey...

deborah said...

Exactly, Ed. A firm, if not lithe body would be required.

Evi, I thought of that...this would have been around that time, and what Lady Mary would have worn to a formal even. Granny would have not.

deborah said...

Yes Chip, my dream would be to go on Jeopardy and run a couple categories...we are so vain.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Rare photos of early Kardashians

chickelit said...

18-year old Madeleine Astor had the décolletage thing going on in a big way around that time. I note that décolletage doesn't mean exposed cleavage.

47-year old John Jacob Astor -- then the world's richest man -- scandalized the world when he married her shortly after divorcing his first wife. God punished Astor by making him die aboard the Titanic. Madeleine, with child, survived the sinking and gave birth to a son. Sadly, she was shunned by polite society and died lonely.

ampersand said...

A conundrum. How do you answer a woman in a bustle who asks "Does this make my butt look big?"?

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

1908 is a wee bit early for Downton (the girls were literally girls then), but definitely possibility for Lady Mary a few years later.

Methadras said...

I dig them all, but the one with the black hat plumage is the one.