Costumes Parisiens
Costume Parisiens is a new fashion exhibition just opened in the Chester Beatty library in Dublin Castle. It showcases fashion plates from 1912-1914 from Journal des Dames et des Modes alongside costume of the time from The Ulster Museum. It is fantastic to have a fashion exhibition of this kind in Dublin and also an exciting opportunity to see more of Chester Beatty’s hidden treasures- some of which can be attributed to the fashionable taste of his wives. I had a tea and a scone in the Silk Road cafe with curator Dr Jill Unkle curator of the Western Collections to find out more about these beautiful images from this opulent time and also to find out more about the life and style of Chester and his glamorous wives.
Ruaruth: How did the Costume Parisiens exhibition evolve?
Jill: We have always had some fashion illustrations on display at The Chester Beatty and we have an almost complete set of the exquisitely produced Journal des Dames magazines that ran from June 1912- June 1914. This was a great starting point as they are very rare and very beautiful. The journals stopped in 1914 because of the start of the first world war like with many other fashion journals and fashion houses. Other journals re-established after the war – the reason this one didn’t was because the publisher was Italian and he moved back to Italy after the war and got involved in politics.
Ruaruth: How were these magazines produced?
Jill: These magazines were a product of the Belle Epoque era and reflected the decadence of the era. It was a magazine that was of extremely high quality with limited edition production process. Each outline was created in copper plate and all the colours, which are still very vivid today, were done by hand. A stencil was used for each colour. The process of production was really time consuming and laborious and also expensive. Many extraordinary artists of the day produced them. It was a magazine for the upper echelons of society, with scenes depicting many different outings and glamorous outfits a lady wore during this period.
Ruaruth: Tell me about the different scenes that are depicted in the fashion plates?
Jill: There are scenes of costumes for afternoon tea, elegant walks in the park, outfits for St Moritz, decorative house dresses, the races, evening and wedding dresses. Fashion illustration really boomed in the 19th century, and prior to these journals being printed people would have had to rely on dolls to transmit the various fashions throughout Europe. The introduction of fashion plates in the 1800s and 1900s set fashion ideas far and wide. Trends and fashions circulated and ideas about styles and dress were transmitted from Paris faster. It could be said to be the birth of the modern idea of trends. They eventually replaced the miniature dolls because they were in a magazine and they carried a detailed description of fabrics and colours and cuts so these images could be brought to your dressmaker and you could recreate this couture look.
Ruaruth: As the keeper of an amazing collection of artefacts, did you unearth anything unexpected in the process of curating this exhibition?
Jill: We did. We have the household accounts of Chester Beatty’s first wife. Her name was Ninette. There are records of what she spent in 1910 when Chester and Ninette lived in New York . It lists all the different places she went shopping. It is really fantastic information. Her spending on clothes for one month was €850 dollars, this was not including jewellery or hats mind you. In today’s money it would be the equivalent of spending about €20,000 a month!
Ruaruth: Tell me about his second wife was she as fashionable?
Jill: We have a full length photograph of his second wife Edith in the exhibition (see below), she was another very fashionable woman. Edith was a connoisseur in her own right and amassed one of the finest collections of French impressionist and post-impressionist paintings in Europe. There is a lovely letter we found dated from 1913. She knew she was going to be in London for a while and she sent to have all of her furs shipped to London from New York. There was a long list describing all her furs from mink, chinchilla and ermine and also detailed accounts of all her accessories from muffs and gloves. She was known as one of the most beautiful women in New York when she first came out. Chester married two very fashionable and beautiful women.
Ruaruth: And Chester what was his style like, did he put importance on his dress?
Jill: Chester, as his collection attests was very interested in design and collected a really good cross-section of fashion related items dating back to the 1500s. He was very interested in fashion was a well dressed man and wore well-tailored suits (see picture below). When he moved to London he was very particular about the style of his servants within his home. When he moved to London he wanted his London livery to look a certain way and had strict instructions. There were letters going back and forth to his housekeeper about the design of his livery. They were to be dressed in a dark blue suit with brass buttons and a blue and white striped vest described as having the narrowest stripe! There was a lot of correspondence about this and his housekeeper Mrs Mason sent him some swatches from which he picked his favourite.
Ruaruth: What is your favourite piece from the exhibition?
Jill: It’s very hard to choose! I am drawn to the plates by George Barbier and a plate which has a dress with Irish crochet which was highly regarded and a luxurious fabric the time (see image below). George Barbier designed not just fashion plates but dresses and costume for theatre and stage, glassware and ceramics and adverts. A lot of artists worked for both. But I like how his plates are very expressive.
I’ll leave with a quote from Journal des Dames et des Modes
‘So, ladies, be stylish. It is a great civic duty. Though Notre-Dame is a cathedral, it is nonetheless une dame. May your exterior be also the cathedral of your soul …’
The Costume Parisiens exhibition runs from 11 October 2013 to 30 March 2014
