The Fashion Shows of Paris

The author of this study is a graduate of Beirut College for Women, known for her scientific spirit and her frankness. She did not let the seven years she spent in Paris — the post of her husband, Dr. Matta Aqrawi — go to waste; rather she profited by the opportunity, observing and investigating, absorbing and drinking deep from the abundant spring...

We are pleased to present, one after another, a series of Mrs. Aqrawi's studies and impressions, which she begins by speaking of the fashion shows of Paris.

- The importance of fashion designers is that they are creative artists, and their moral standing equals that of the great artists.

- Each of the famous couturiers has his own style and his own troupe of models, "mannequins."

- There is no doubt that Dior is the leader of the movement of creation and the dictator of women's dress throughout the world.

- Every gown has its name, expressing at times the artist's emotion as he created it.

- Every fashion show in the salons of Paris is a splendid work of art, composed in an orderly fashion.

Anatole France once said: If it were granted me to lift the curtain of the unseen and stretch my hand into the distant future, to choose from the basket of literary productions that will be published a hundred years after my death — what do you suppose I would choose? ... A love story? No... for a love story, however tangled, never goes beyond a single unchanging tune: a man loves a woman who does not love him, or a woman loves a man who does not want her, or each loves the other to the point of madness, or hates the other violently and fiercely. And even if we added a third lover, its possibilities would not exceed ten situations... No. I would not choose a story from the library of the future, nor a work of history, for history books, when they offer us something that stirs desire, do not go beyond the scope of the story... All I would want of the future's heritage is a fashion magazine, so that I might look upon women's dress a generation after my death. I am certain that their temptations and their fancies would make me understand mankind's coming civilization far better than the books of the philosophers, the storytellers, the scientists, and the preachers...

It is known of Marcel Proust, the famous French novelist, that while composing his well-known book "In Search of Lost Time" (A la Recherche du Temps Perdu) he withdrew from the world for ten years, secluding himself in the apartment of his house, lining the walls of his room with cork to raise an impregnable barrier between himself and the clamor of the outside world; and that he would not leave the confines of his house except when he wished to describe some piece of women's dress — then he would go to the aristocratic salons, or to the Opera, or to the wardrobe of one of his lady friends, to catch an image he would immortalize in his splendid prose and engrave in his winding, sinuous expressions.

Proust left a precious literary legacy, counted among the most eloquent writing in the French language, including pages in which he describes the women's fashions of his age.

There is no doubt that fashion is closely bound to the civilization in which it arises; it interacts with the social and economic atmosphere, influencing it and expressing it. If we cast a glance over history we find numerous examples of this: the simplicity of Greek dress expresses that classical civilization; the magnificence of women's dress in the fifteenth century expresses the flourishing of wealth in that age; and the fashions issuing from the palaces of the Bourbon kings and their courtiers tell of the life of ease and extravagance in which the ladies of the court were then immersed... Then came the Romantic movement, working a revolution in women's dress; then came the First World War, after which woman went down into the field of free employment — and behold, her dress was turned upside down: the dress rose to the knees, the waistline fell, the hair was bobbed, woman took on a boyish look, fabrics grew scarce and were used sparingly, and her dress became practical, suited to the circumstances of her new life.

In the history of fashion there are centers that have played important parts in this field, among them: Greece and Rome, Byzantium and Paris, and in the present age Hollywood and New York.

I do not exaggerate if I say that Paris leads the way in this field. Manuscripts describing ladies' costumes appeared there as early as the ninth century A.D.; and in the twelfth century the illuminated manuscript became a recognized art for depicting the fashions of the age. From the late fourteenth century France became the fashion leader of the Western world: dolls were dressed and sent as models to the English court, or sold to the merchants of Venice, who spread them throughout the civilized world. She ruled the world's fashions in the days of her kings at Versailles, when whatever the queens or the ladies of the court wore was reckoned the final word in women's dress. And there are names that played an important part in this field, among them La Vallière, Madame de Montespan, and Madame de Maintenon at the court of Louis XIV; Madame de Pompadour and Du Barry at the court of Louis XV; and Marie Antoinette at the palace of the Trianon.

Then came the Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III, who revived the weaving of silk in the mills of Lyon, after Worth had sewn her a gown made of that fabric. In the year 1850 there were in France one hundred fifty-eight salons for the making of gowns, and their number grew until by 1898 there were approximately one thousand nine hundred thirty-two salons.

From this we see that Paris is long-rooted in the art of dressmaking, and among the most delightful things the tourist can experience in this capital today are a few hours spent at the fashion shows in the famous couture salons. Chief among these salons are those of Dior, Balmain, Fath, Ricci, Germaine Leconte, etc. — names well known among us.

The importance of fashion designers is that they are creative artists whose moral standing equals that of the great artists. I remember that when Fath died, the daily press wrote more about him than it wrote on the death of André Gide, the great literary genius, and as much as it wrote about Claudel, the famous French poet. Last summer the University in Paris invited Dior to lecture in the Western civilization classes on his fashions and the manner of showing them. Among the latest news is that Madame Bonnet, wife of the French ambassador to Washington, now retired in Paris, has entered the management of the salon of "Dior."

I once visited an institute of vocational instruction for girls, whose course of study is three years after the intermediate stage, and I asked the inspectress-general about the institute's aim. She said with pride: "We are training workers for Christian Dior."

In the face of such importance enjoyed by the fashion houses, we can do no less than glance at how creation, showing, and selling are carried on: invitations are personal, and are usually sent to clients who have bought before or who wish to buy. They are sent also to people of the press, the art institutes, statesmen, the diplomatic corps, the international institutions, and people of the stage and the cinema. Very often we see an audience mixed of both sexes... There is, however, one particular class that cannot enter a showing except upon payment of a sum of money amounting to one hundred thousand francs — the class of dressmakers, men and women; for the rights of creation are protected like an author's copyright, and Dior has many times hauled offenders before the courts on charges of copying or theft.

The minimum price of a gown is one hundred thousand francs. Hence the elegant women who enjoy these beautiful clothes are usually of the wealthy American and European class, the wife of the head of state, the French ambassadresses, some of the ladies of the diplomatic corps, and actresses of stage and screen.

Each of these houses is set apart by a particular style and an art that distinguishes it from the others, and after a short trial the critical spectator finds himself able to tell one couturier from another. Just as each of the famous painters has a style of his own and a school of his own to which he belongs, so each of the famous couturiers has his own style: the designs of Dior, for instance, astonish us with their daring, inventiveness, and extremism; Balmain answers this with moderation and deliberation; and Leconte stands alone in creating gowns inspired by the lines of the Indian sari...

And just as each salon has its own style of creation, so each has its own troupe of models (mannequins): there are the tall ones, like the troupe of Germaine Leconte, and the short ones, like the troupe of Dessès; and each troupe has a particular manner of moving during the show — from steps that dart along with a nervous skittishness, to a swaying, haughty, bewitching gait, to a swiftness of stride like the flash of lightning...

Yet all are agreed, more or less, on the following order: first the suits are shown, then the simple day dresses and the ordinary coats, moving on to the cocktail dresses with their gaiety, then the glittering evening gowns with their splendor; and the show usually ends with the bridal gown...

Every gown has its name and its number, announced as the model enters the hall of the salon. These names have a special magic, for they hint at the artist's emotion as he created the gown, and perhaps they disclose the distant past from which he drew his inspiration. Here are examples of these names:
Pompadour, Étourderie, Coquette, Trianon, Versailles

Among the most charming things I have seen in this line was a showing by Fath in which he bestowed upon his collection of gowns the names of famous writers and poets, living and dead, from Musset to Claudel and from Hugo to Sartre — as if, hard pressed to find new names for his fertile invention, he dipped into France's literary heritage and joined it to his artistic heritage.

Every show has a focal point around which it turns, and a basic theme from which branch many offshoots closely bound to it. Just as a piece of music has a basic melody to which all the subsidiary melodies return, so every fashion show in these salons is a splendid work of art, composed in an orderly way, bespeaking the logical French mind and the refinement of feeling in the being of its creator.

Among the characteristics of this modern art is the constant change of lines, colors, and directions. Scarcely does one season pass over the latest gown the modern lady has worn before we feel that she has fallen behind the caravan of the new fashions; she is forever in a continual race with the mode. For modern civilization, with its speed of communications, its modern ways of living, and its ceaseless movement, individual and collective, has played its part in woman's dress: whereas in the Middle Ages and before, fashions took tens of years to travel and to change, today we can carry them in a few hours on the "magic carpet," or through the "mirror of half the world."

If we glance at the evolution of fashion since 1946, the day Dior created the New Look, we find that women's fashion has changed four or five times in the last ten years: from the "New Look" to the shortening of the dress, to the "string bean" line (haricot vert), to the "H" line, to the "Princesse" line, to the "A" line, etc.

We may say that Dior is the leader of the movement of creation; his fame is worldwide, and he is, without rival, the dictator of women's dress in the world... Certain circles of dressmakers and clients may at times rise against him and refuse to follow his extreme lines, but in the end they bow to the power of his magic wand...

And despite this rapid change that we see in modern fashion, the art of couture in Paris has qualities that set it apart from all the rest of the world's production in this line: the hidden elegance that is but glimpsed; the deliberation in the blending of colors; and that classical touch in its aiming at perfect beauty — in the words of the French themselves, "that hidden something by which French dressmaking is distinguished." All these are features of this long-rooted art in which France has stood alone through the generations...