Los Angeles-based fashion designers have a distinct style, much different than their New York counterparts. This April, Reuters noted: “The City of Angels has carved out a niche for itself as a host for casual brands like American Apparel and as a manufacturer of quick-turnaround ‘fast fashion’ and small orders for emerging designers. Fashion is the city’s largest manufacturing industry, and employs more people here than in New York.[1] (1)
This might be a surprising statement for those not familiar with the fashion world. Most would identify New York as the American fashion capital. But the fact is, California has long been a fashion leader, and this isn’t the first time the Golden State has eclipsed New York.
Two cataclysmic events, the Great Depression and World War II, created a change in the needs of American women. The active California lifestyle and the Hollywood film industry both affected the demand for a different style of women’s clothing. It was during this time that California established itself as a fashion capital.
American film played a large part in showcasing the California fashions in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. The theaters were public places of congregation. Women would go after work to watch the news and see a feature film. Hollywood was providing entertainment to help citizens escape their glum realities of economic depression and war. Historically, this was a time when the entire film production took place in California. Actresses like Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and Mae West captivated audiences with their style and glamour. The movie industry, and its costume designers, exerted a direct influence on fashions that were available in stores.
Much like today, when actresses were seen on film, women clamored to imitate their styles. Independent fashion designers and manufacturers began sprouting up throught the Golden State. Vogue noted the growing power of California on the horizon: “Throughout the 1930s Vogue juggled issues of innovation and ideas with Paris on the one hand and Hollywood on the other, giving equal credence to both camps . . . Paris was working on a seasonal time scale, Hollywood was years in advance.”[2]
It is noteworthy that New York was not mentioned as an innovative fashion capital at the time. The popularity of the fashions seen in film spurred major department stores to feature pop-up California departments. However, the California departments were not permanent fixtures of the stores.[3]
California Fashions from 1941 Exude Fun and Youth. Pope, Virginia. California. New York Times: June 22, 1941, D6.
What made California fashion appealing was that it exuded fun, relaxation, and youthfulness. American women idolized youth, a much different ideal than that of Europe: “How we Americans rebel against looking our age. The French will trade adolescence for sophistication any day.”[4] The youthful look was achieved by using non-traditional fabrics, like unbleached muslin, and appliqués of flowers and horses. Youthfulness was, and still is, the most coveted quality of the American look. Hollywood films had created a young, attractive woman as the national ideal and symbol of patriotism.
The biggest California export during the 1930s was Play Clothes. Play clothes, or sports togs, originated in California. As the name suggests, play clothes allowed women freedom of movement while enjoying in activities the outdoors. They were appealing because they allowed for a lifestyle full of sports, gardening, and sunbathing – all popular activities in the Golden State. Virginia Pope of the New York Times makes it abundantly clear that Californians created and reigned supreme in this casual style:
“It began, if memory does not fail us, when women on the other side of the continent began to wear smocks of muslin in glorious hand-dyed shades over their beach togs or in their gardens. Some bright mind spied the styles and brought them back to Broadway. Since then, fashion scouts have been increasingly on the alert and have trekked westward in growing numbers.”[5]
Play clothes were durable, informal, and inexpensive. They were also easy to wear and wash: “The big idea is to play in togs that are comfortable and at the same time good looking; that are of smart fabrics which will stand hard wear, won’t crush easily, and will bear the rigors of the wash tub or manipulations of the cleaner.”[6]
California Slacks. Vogue: 15 April 1939, 54.
Aside from play clothes, California next biggest export were pants for women. Pants, or slacks, were much more important for the women of California than the rest of the country. Travelers to the West came back reporting having seen slack-clad women, well dressed ones, too, on the streets and in the shops of California cities. Clothing manufactures based in California carefully and strategically crafted and advanced the cut and fit of pants.
Pants, or slacks, for women were becoming an accepted wardrobe staple. However, certain regions were more open-minded to this change. California was a whole-hearted pioneer. Other vacation destinations including the Riviera and Palm Beach allowed women to wear pants. Slacks were not as accepted in northern East Coast cities, like New York and Boston. Slowly, the traditional dress codes were erodes to allow women to wear pants, although this took decades to be accepted across America.
Each year, American consumers accepted and purchased more California garments. Designers based in the Golden State brought a youthful elegance to the American Look. The women that flooded the workplace during WWII could also be smartly, and appropriately dressed. Women adopted a more functional wardrobe for work and now indulged in active pastimes.
Although the California may still have to defend its position as a fashion leader, the evidence is quite clear. Every time a woman wears pants or active wear, it is a legacy of the Golden State.
Born and educated in San Francisco, Louise Dahl-Wolfe would later work as a staff photographer for Harper’s Bazaar from 1936 through 1958. I recently came upon an extremely detailed account of her life and San Francisco beginnings on from this website (originally published in April 2010):
“Louise Dahl-Wolfe (1895 – 1989) was born in San Francisco. Aspiring to a career as a painter, she attended the California School of Design (now the San Francisco Art Institute). . . . After completing her studies, Dahl-Wolfe designed electric signs from 1921 to 1923; in 1924 she began working for a leading decorator. In 1921 she was invited to the studio of photographer Anne Brigman; this meeting prompted her to buy her first camera, an Eastman bellows camera with a reflector made from a Ghirardelli chocolate box. She used her mother as the subject of her first pictures. Early photographic adventures included taking shots of herself and some friends nude on a beach, using the soft-focus style of her mentor. After Dahl-Wolfe befriended another San Francisco photographer, Consuela Kanaga, who taught her to use a 314-by-414-inch Thorn-ton-Pickard English reflex camera with a Verito soft-focus lens, the two traveled together to Europe in 1927. . . .
Dahl-Wolfe returned to San Francisco in 1928 and began taking commercial black-and-white photographs. . . . After moving with her husband to New York, Dahl-Wolfe was introduced to Frank Crowninshield, then editor of Vanity Fair, who decided to publish her work. . . . This success led to the publication of her first black-and-white fashion work in Harper’s Bazaar in 1936 and her first color work a year later.”
“During the war, when rich fabrics were scarce, embroidery was the principal form of ornamentation on dresses. For a few years after the war, couture houses were starved of fine fabrics. Most available textiles were plain, but couturiers compensated by embellishing them with rich embroidery. Chanel made tunics in black and other dark colors adorned with vividly coloured, ‘exotic’ – meaning in this case, Russian – embroidery. After the White Russians arrived in Paris, Russian women, including aristocrats, supported their families by embroidering Slavic motifs. …” (Stewart, Mary Lynn.“Marketing Fabrics & Femininity in Interwar France,” Textile History. 35(1), 90-111, 2004. 98).
While most people, by now, will have heard much about the exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty currently on view (through August 7) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art – not much attention has been paid to the text of the exhibition catalog from Yale University Press. As readers may remember, I wrote the tribute to McQueen for Worn Through in February 2010.
The book itself is a beautiful object, printed in Italy, with a now-familiar hologram of McQueen’s face juxtaposed with a skull. The catalog is visually stunning, and the unique nature of the photographs by Solve Sundsbo have already been discussed at length by others. Individual pieces in the exhibition are not examined in depth here – but two essays do eliminate much of Mr. McQueen’s inspiration and points of reference.
McQueen's Girl Who Lived In a Tree Collection, Autumn/Winter 2008/09 (Via Fashion Muse)
Certainly, any student of fashion will have known of McQueens interest in the gothic and the grotesque, his experimentation with unusual materials -from human hair to seashells, as well as British and Military history and above all Romanticism.
I had heard of his interest in iconic women from history. As the book notes, McQueen once said “I don’t really get inspired [by specific women] . . . It’s more in the mids of the women in the past, like Catherine the Great, or Marie Antoinette. People who were doomed. Joan of Art or Colette. Iconic women.”(115)
What I had not previously been aware of was his use of literary reference. It became obvious from the image on the cover – his own face transformed into a skull immediately brings to mind the tortured character of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Alexander McQueen and the Smoking Skull (click for more info)
Curator Andrew Bolton addresses this point first in the preface to the book, highlighting the fact that McQueen had a tattoo from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream on his arm, “Love Looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.” Bolton explains how this notion of love transforming something ugly into something beautiful was “critical to his creativity.” Continuing to explore McQueens work through the lens of literary criticism, Bolton compares McQueen’s use of Romantic exoticism with the work of Lord Byron and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Overall, the catalog has a very light touch in terms of reading – only Bolton’s esssay, an introduction by Susannah Frankel, and an Interview with Sarah Burton by Tim Blanks provide context to the stunning images. I would have loved a deeper analysis of the objects themselves – something I’ve felt has been lacking in several recent exhibition catalogs. However – this catalog is a beautiful object, and represents the most important of McQueens designs. It is a beautiful tribute to a one-of-a-kind designer.
My small hometown of Benicia, CA has a historical museum whose website includes several groups of ‘mystery’ vintage photographs. Though places, dates, and people aren’t always known. These photographs provide a remarkably clear record of what people were wearing in times gone by. I’d guess that the majority of the photographs on this website come from the interwar years, specifically the teens and twenties. There are pictures of the Benicia High sports teams, old cars, the fire department, and something called the “John Laurence Molfino Biography.”
My personal favorite though, is the selection of photos of a pageant dance held in an open field in 1923, that was VERY well attended.
According to the Oakland Tribune, the 1923 Solano County Historical Pageant was attended by 10,000 people. It seems that this Pageant was put on by a federation of several different women’s social clubs. Held in Benicia on May 11, 1923, the pageant included nine different episodes and required nearly five hours to watch the entire show.
Both the Solano Republican and the Oakland Tribune indicated that the dance director was Mrs. A. G. Bailey of Suisun. Though not all of the costumes are of this style, the photos I’ve included here SO strongly resemble the costumes and dance styles of Isadora Duncan and Loie Fuller – I can’t help wonder if either of them were involved somehow. Both women were in the Eastern Bay Area in the teens and twenties. At the very least, I suspect Mrs. Bailey had seen them perform. Interestingly, the composer of the music for the pageant, Dr. Douglas Wright, was from Berkeley – where much Bohemian artist activity was centered.
Via Benicia Historical MuseumVia Benicia Historical Museum
Via Benicia Historical Museum
Via Benicia Historical Museum
Via Benicia Historical MuseumVia Benicia Historical Museum
The Solano Republican goes on to explain that “The cunning little costume drawn by Miss Doddson is simple, but altogether charming.” Emma Doddson of Suisun was, in fact, the Artistic Director, for the entire show. I would guess that it was her vision that created these designs. Interestingly, the publicity manager – Miss E.C. Stove, arranged for rotating exhibits (including dresses) to travel to all the different towns involved to attract attendees.
Sabine Goerke-Shrode*, did a good bit of research on this event, and found in her 2004 article that a good portion of the remaining design, writing, organizing and construction work was done at Armijo High School. Other photos in this collection show young girls in traditional ballet costumes, as well as in period costume (as well as performers dressed as military, spanish and native american costumes).
Those interested in reading more about the Pageant itself can download this coverage of the event from the Oakland Tribune in 1923 (Click here to download the PDF). I’d love to hear from anyone who might have additional information on these photographs and as always, anyone with ideas is welcome to comment. For more of the photos, please visit the Benicia Historical Museum.
“SAN FRANCISCO, June 16 [1964]–THE ‘NEW’ SUIT–Model Evelyn Fry wears the last word in swim suits, a creation by designer Rudi Gernreich of Los Angeles which could be classed as a one-piece bathing suit. Orders for the suit are being taken a Nasimo’s North Beach Hi-Fashion shop prior to arrival of a suitable number of the garments. They are not expected to appear on public beaches in the immediate future.” Via the SF Public Library Historic Photos Collection
The Oakland Museum of California has recently updated their website and is now featuring (at the top of the page, no less) their historic costume collection. The costume collection online features about 450 objects online, and provides some details about the objects that appear. In browsing through the online collection, it seems heavy on shoes, hats and accessories – with few couture or designer garments (though James Gallanos is certainly present, as well as a few pieces from I. Magnin).
c. 1926-1927 *(see below for full catalog entry)
However, it does become clear that the focus is really on the history of California. Ethnic and Sportswear are included in this online selection, as well as artwear (including shoes by Gaza Bowen) and all types of uniforms (Military, nurse, employee, even campfire girl). A number of objects relate to the early days of the gay pride movement. Film costume is sparce, but it does include a pair of Eddie Murphy’s shoes from Beverly Hills Cop.
If you’re looking for a needle in a haystack, it’s certainly a place to start.
This brown satin dress–with a scoop neck and short sleeves–is decorated with bands of the self same brown satin, as well as beading done in the form of flowers. The beads are sewn directly to the dress, mostly 6 petal flowers in various combinations of blue, green, amber color, pink and purple beads; they form an eight inch band around the skirt, above the wide hem. The dress has a dropped waist, and the top of the skirt is shirred with four bands of stitching. A band of the satin (about 1 1/8 inches wide) drops from the proper left shoulder, front and back, is loose to the dropped waist, where it is caught with a horizontal band of machine stitching, and then falls free again to the hem. At the proper left shoulder a lozenge-shaped piece of beaded brown satin (centered with a 4 petal pink flower) is stitched to hold the decorative bands.
Mary Acelia Chamberlain, who wore this dress, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1926. Although she taught in the San Francisco School System all her working life, she was also an accomplished musician, playing the violin. She performed at the Claremont Hotel. According to family history, she also entertained service men, playing the violin, while she was still in high school. She was bornn August 28, 1905 in Philadelphia, PA and moved to California at the death of her grandfather, before July of 1906. She died December 20, 2005 at the age of 100.
Used: Mary Acelia Chamberlain | University Of California, Berkeley | Claremont Hotel | Adult ~ female | Musician
Noir film costume design is often gone uncredited – but that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate it. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival comes this weekend to the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, and one of its presentations is a Noir film called The Woman Men Yearn For, starring Marlene Dietrich.
“Before she shot into stardom with Josef Von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel (1930), Marlene Dietrich had a brief career in German silent films. The Film Noir Foundation is proud to co-present one of these rarely screened films, Kurt Bernhardt’s The Woman Men Yearn For (1929) at this year’s San Francisco Silent Film Festival. On his way to his honeymoon, a young industrialist encounters a seductive beauty (Dietrich), traveling with a mysterious male companion. When she begs the young man to help her, events spin out of control. For more information on the festival, running July 14 through 17, visit the SFSFF website.” See the full lineup here
On a related note, the Marelene Dietrch Collection Berlin includes a huge selection of her clothing and accessories. Those looking to research her film costume and offf-screen style should probably start here. The collection includes:
Over 3,000 textile items from the twenties to the nineties, including 30 film- and 40 show costumes, by among others Jean Louis, Travis Banton, Edith Head, Eddie Schmidt.
1,000 individual items from her private wardrobe, 50 handbags, 150 pairs of gloves, by among others: Elizabeth Arden, Balenciaga, Balmain, Chanel, Courrèges, Dior, Givenchy, Guerlain, Irene, Knize, Lee, Levis, Schiaparelli, Ungaro.
400 hats, 440 pairs of shoes by, among others: Agnés, Aprile, Cavanagh, Lilly Dache, Delman, Edouard, John Frederics, Massaro.
*