Fashion and Celebrity
- By The Museum at FIT
- In Objects
- Tagged with André Courrèges Brigitte Bardot Catherine Deneuve Françoise Hardy Sylvie Vartan Yves Saint Laurent
- On 6 Mar | '2017
The links between fashion and celebrity culture during the 1960s are most often associated with London, with stars such as the Beatles and Twiggy becoming international sensations. Yet there was a vibrant and influential youth culture in France as well. Film stars including Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve became fashion icons, as did singers such as Françoise Hardy and Sylvie Vartan.
Brigitte Bardot’s impact on fashion was firmly established in 1959, when she married fellow actor Jacques Charrier in a full-skirted, pink gingham gown by Jacques Estérel. While the look of the dress itself was not innovative, the use of humble cotton fabric for a bridal gown flouted tradition. Only one month after her wedding, the New York Times reported, “You can’t buy a yard of checkered gingham in Paris, not even enough for kitchen curtains, since Brigitte picked the fabric for her wedding dress.”
Catherine Deneuve’s 1960s style was defined by her relationship with Yves Saint Laurent. She wore the designer’s clothing on- and off-screen, such as his original “le smoking” suit and a gown from his renowned “Pop Art” collection. She also owned some of Saint Laurent’s more subdued styles, including a navy wool pea coat with brass buttons from 1966. The Museum at FIT’s collection houses an example of this same design.
Françoise Hardy and Sylvie Vartan were associated with a musical genre known as yé-yé, which took its name from English-language songs that included the words “yeah, yeah, yeah” – most famously, the Beatles song “She Loves You.”
1966
Gift of Doris Strakosch
78.85.3
Similar to the way the term “mod” in England and the United States, yé-yé became used as a term to describe various aspects of French youth culture. Particular clothing styles were identified as yé-yé fashion, including trench coats, striped t-shirts, and flat, Mary Jane-style shoes. Two trench coats included in the Paris Refashioned exhibition – one from Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, the other from André Courrèges’s ready-to-wear line, Couture Future – were selected to represent an aspect of the yé-yé style.
Right: trench coat by Couture Future (André Courrèges), circa 1968
Photo by Eileen Costa. © 2017 The Museum at FIT
Masculin féminin and French Youth Fashion
- By The Museum at FIT
- In Fashion Films
- On 3 Mar | '2017
A screening of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1966 film Masculin féminin in July 2014 rekindled my love for 1960s French fashion, and eventually inspired me to organize Paris Refashioned, 1957-1968. Although I had watched the film numerous times, viewing it on a large screen at The Museum of the Moving Image, rather than a small home television, made a profound difference. I could suddenly catch many details that I had previously missed – including (most important to me) a better view of the fashions.
The film stars Chantal Goya, a real-life singer who was part of the yé-yé scene. In an instance of art imitating life, Goya plays Madeleine Zimmer, a young woman who is building her career as a pop singer. In my earlier viewings of the film, I had never paid close attention to Madeleine’s wardrobe. I was too intent on examining a different yé-yé singer: Françoise Hardy, who makes a notable cameo in a head-to-toe look by André Courrèges, including his famous white, peep-toe boots. Dating to spring 1964, the ensemble was very likely Hardy’s own (she frequently wore Courrèges’s fashions on- and offstage).
It was not until I began working on this project that I noticed something peculiar about one of Goya’s ensembles, a jacket with a boldly striped patch pocket and a scarf to match. Upon closer examination, it became clear that the pocket was emblazoned with the initial “C,” while the scarf featured a “G.” Months later, as I was flipping through an issue of Elle, I came upon the design in a color photograph. It was, quite shockingly, bright red with white stripes. Designed by Daniel Hechter, the style was sold at La Knack boutique for 360 francs (scarf included), where clients could purchase the garments with their own initials. Chantal Goya was evidently wearing clothing from her own closet for the film. It is probable that some of the film’s viewers recognized this ensemble, which was not only created by a prominent ready-to-wear designer and sold in a trendy boutique, but was also featured in the pages of a widely read fashion magazine. Further connecting the film’s plot to the vital French youth culture of its day, this research discovery deepened my appreciation for Godard’s poignant film.
A Tribute to Ready-to-Wear Innovator Emmanuelle Khanh
- By The Museum at FIT
- In Exhibition Curator Fashion Designers
- Tagged with Balenciaga Emmanuelle Khanh
- On 1 Mar | '2017
Khanh began her career in the fashion world by modeling for Balenciaga, an experience that soured her opinion of the esteemed world of couture. “Balenciaga treated us like chairs and I think the fact that he couldn’t care less about us women reflects on the way he created dresses,” Khanh recalled. She launched her own line of ready-to-wear fashion after quitting Balenciaga in 1960, and soon became a fashion star in her own right.
Her regular inclusion in Elle magazine was perhaps to be expected, given its emphasis on fashion-forward ready-to-wear, but she was also a darling of Queen (then the trendiest fashion magazine in Britain), American Vogue, and Mademoiselle. The yellow-and-white dress that I selected as the “poster girl” for the Paris Refashioned exhibition dates to 1966. It was featured in Mademoiselle and was donated by one of the magazine’s editors. I use it as a way to introduce visitors to the newfound status of French ready-to-wear during this era.
Khanh’s clothing style during the 1960s featured a masterful blend of hard-edged geometry and softly curving lines that was manifestly her own. Her personal appearance was also distinctive, and already included the oversize glasses that she would popularize and market to millions of consumers (we can thank Emmanuelle Khanh for making good vision look chic). She was a true individual – a savvy designer and businesswoman who helped to shape the fashion industry as we know it today.
1966
Gift of Sandy Horvitz
77.57.2
Circa 1966
Gift of Mrs. Myrna Davis
80.200.4
Yves Saint Laurent’s “Mondrian” Collection
- By The Museum at FIT
- In Objects
- Tagged with Yves Saint Laurent
- On 24 Feb | '2017
Models wearing Saint Laurent-inspired ensembles at the Detroit Auto Show, 1966
Photograph © Car & Driver
Piet Mondrian, Composition C, 1935
Public domain
Saint Laurent had previously experimented with color-blocking while he was working for the house of Christian Dior, but he was not the first designer to be inspired by Mondrian: several years earlier, the American milliner Sally Victor had created a series of hats that took their cue from his paintings. Nevertheless, Saint Laurent’s colorful, geometric dresses became some of his most famous – and copied – works. Saint Laurent himself licensed his design to Vogue patterns, and cheap, mass-manufactured imitations of the style proliferated during the 1960s, as evidenced by the fashions worn to promote the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado at the Detroit Auto Show that same year.
Fall 1965
Gift of Igor Kamlukin from the Estate of Valentina Schlee
95.180.1
Couture Shoes: Roger Vivier and René Mancini
- By The Museum at FIT
- In Objects
- Tagged with Christian Dior René Mancini Roger Vivier shoes
- On 22 Feb | '2017
A “head to toe” look, including hats and shoes, was essential to 1950s couture. Roger Vivier’s ten-year collaboration with the house of Dior made history: not only was Vivier the first shoe designer to create footwear especially for couture collections, he was also the first to be openly credited for his work. His name was prominently featured alongside Dior’s in the press, in advertisements, and on the insoles of a line of ready-made shoes—an unprecedented move that placed a shoe designer and a couturier on equal ground. This immensely successful collaboration between designers remains a template for similar partnerships today.
Circa 1957
Gift of Arthur Schwartz
79.169.3
René Mancini established his business in 1950, and specialized in custom-made shoes for prominent couturiers. He was one of several designers to produce footwear for Chanel, including her signature spectator pumps. He also made shoes for collections by Cristóbal Balenciaga, Hubert de Givenchy, and Yves Saint Laurent. The stiletto heels that dominated the 1950s fell out of fashion during the next decade in favor of more practical and youthful styles.
Circa 1959
Gift of Lauren Bacall
68.143.137
Paris Refashioned, 1957-1968 Publication
- By The Museum at FIT
- In Exhibition Publication
- On 17 Feb | '2017
252 pages, 125 illustrations
ISBN: 9780300226072
Release date: February 21, 2017
The Museum at FIT exhibition Paris Refashioned, 1957-1968 is accompanied by a publication of the same name. Published by Yale University Press, it is written by exhibition curator Colleen Hill, with essays by Valerie Steele, Patricia Mears, Emma McClendon, and Alexis Romano. The book examines one of the most exciting periods in fashion history, as shifting cultural paradigms were embraced by a generation of designers that challenged conventions and reinvented the fashion industry.
This compelling volume focuses on the important, but too often dismissed, fashions that were created in Paris during this time. From the early couture designs of Yves Saint Laurent to the popular ready-to-wear fashions by Emmanuelle Khanh, the development of Parisian fashion during the 1960s remains influential to fashion today.
Hill features eye-catching images from Elle and Vogue, as well as stunning examples of fashion from The Museum at FIT’s world-class collection. She provides an in-depth look at the combined influences of French haute couture, ready-to-wear, and popular culture during this era. In doing so, she describes how the dominance of haute couture was challenged by the ready-to-wear movement, resulting in the rise of a vibrant, youthful, and modern aesthetic in Parisian fashion.
Balenciaga and Givenchy
- By The Museum at FIT
- In Objects
- Tagged with Cristóbal Balenciaga Hubert de Givenchy
- On 15 Feb | '2017
Hubert de Givenchy met Cristóbal Balenciaga in 1953, two years after Givenchy opened his couture house. Although Givenchy never formally apprenticed under Balenciaga, the elder couturier became his mentor, informing his business decisions and his aesthetic.
By the early 1960s, fashion critics had begun to complain that Givenchy was relying too heavily on styles pioneered by Balenciaga. Nevertheless, both couturiers continued to be enormously successful, and each had a large clientele in France and the United States. These voluminous coats, owned by the American heiress Doris Duke, reveal that the designers shared ideas as well as clients.
Right: coat by Cristóbal Balenciaga, circa 1957
Photo by Eileen Costa. © 2017 The Museum at FIT
Welcome to Paris Refashioned, 1957-1968, from exhibition curator Colleen Hill
- By The Museum at FIT
- In Exhibition Curator
- On 10 Feb | '2017
Paris Refashioned, 1957-1968, on view at The Museum at FIT through April 15, 2017, features work from these designers and many more. Although my past research on the fashions of the yé-yé girls was important to this project, the exhibition takes a larger perspective, emphasizing the shift within the 1960s fashion industry from the unassailable dominance of the haute couture to the newfound influence of ready-to-wear.
This blog runs concurrently with the exhibition, and will provide information on specific objects, press, and other exhibition-related media that will familiarize you with this especially dynamic, eleven-year period in French fashion.
–Colleen Hill, curator of costume and accessories at The Museum at FIT
Cardin Evening Gown, circa 1957
- By The Museum at FIT
- In Objects
- On 30 Jan | '2017
Pierre Cardin opened his own house in 1950, still only in his late twenties. According to a 1965 biography of the designer, Cardin’s early years were successful, but he was known primarily for designing suits. It was not until 1957 that he designed his first full couture collection, with designs for all occasions.
Viewing the couturier’s early designs – in particular his evening dresses – may be startling to anyone familiar with his work from the 1960s. Although fashionable and beautifully made, it is difficult to identify this gown as the work of Cardin. Over the next few years, he would begin to distinguish himself as a designer with a taste for the avant-garde and even the futuristic.
circa 1957
gift of Rodman A. Heeren
72.112.38
Balenciaga “Baby Doll” Dress, circa 1957
- By The Museum at FIT
- In Objects
- On 30 Jan | '2017
Balenciaga was an exceptional couturier in many ways, one being his ability to work outside of the dominant 1950s “hourglass” silhouette with great success. Balenciaga’s creations from the late 1950s were not only distinctive, but also prescient: his lace “baby doll” dress, first presented in 1957, foreshadowed the youthful, loose-fitting fashions of the 1960s.
Its basic design consisted of a body-skimming slip worn beneath a loose lace outer dress, sometimes cinched at the waist with a ribbon. Worn without the ribbon, the triangular-shaped outer dress may have provided inspiration for Saint Laurent’s “Trapeze” silhouette, which he introduced for the spring 1958 collection at the House of Dior.
circa 1957
gift of The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the estate of Ann E. Woodward
87.158.2