Posts in the Marcel Proust category

Egyptian-inspired Evening Ensemble

The Museum at FIT's: opening party for Proust’s Muse, The Countess Greffulhe
Photographs © Zach Hilty/BFA.com

Photographs © Zach Hilty/BFA.com

Marcel Proust was inspired by the Countess Greffulhe when he created the character of the Duchesse de Guermantes. But he also drew on elements of her style for another character, the Princesse de Guermantes. In one scene in The Guermantes Way, he placed the two women together: the former “typically French” in her “exquisite refinement,” the latter more “poetic” and “dressed up.” This evening ensemble, with its motif of hieroglyphics inspired by the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, seems more in accordance with the style of the Princesse de Guermantes.
Evening ensemble (no label), circa 1925
Bolero: gold and green lame, metallic lace, pink silk crepe de chine lining
Dress: gold and silver metallic lace, silk tulle embroidered with metallic threads
Foundation: Gold and green lamé
GAL1964.20.23ABC, gift of the Gramont family to the Palais Galliera

Proust’s Muse, The Countess Greffulhe runs through January 7, 2016 at The Museum at FIT in NYC.

palais-galliera-logos-sm

This exhibition was developed by the Palais Galliera, Fashion Museum of the City of Paris, Paris Musées.

Evening Dress circa 1925

Photograph © Zach Hilty/BFA.com

Photograph © Zach Hilty/BFA.com

The frocks of the 1920s were a far cry from the elaborate evening gowns in which Élisabeth Greffulhe had once astonished Parisian society. Yet memories of fashions past inevitably occur. For example, Proust once described the Duchesse de Guermantes wearing a gown ornamented with “innumerable spangles.” He wrote, “I did not believe that any other woman could usurp that spangled bodice, any more than the flashing aegis of Minerva.”
Evening dress (no label), circa 1925
Ivory tulle, embroidered with beads and sequins, silk muslin
GAL1964.20.20, gift of the Gramont family to the Palais Galliera
Proust’s Muse, The Countess Greffulhe runs through January 7, 2016 at The Museum at FIT in NYC.
palais-galliera-logos-sm

This exhibition was developed by the Palais Galliera, Fashion Museum of the City of Paris, Paris Musées.

On Marcel Proust

One of Marcel Proust’s biggest fan’s on social media is Marcelita Swann. If you’d like to learn more about the author, her twitter account is a great place to start!











Proust’s Muse, The Countess Greffulhe runs through January 7, 2016 at The Museum at FIT in NYC.

Mariano Fortuny

© Julien Vidal / Galliera / Roger-Viollet

© Julien Vidal / Galliera / Roger-Viollet

Mariano Fortuny, a Spanish artist based in Venice, created “unique” garments made from marvelous fabrics that evoked for Proust “that Venice loaded with the gorgeous East.” In Proust’s novel, the Duchesse de Guermantes often wears Fortuny, and the narrator asks her about one such gown “streaked with gold like a butterfly’s wing” that seemed to have a special poetry. Soon he is bribing his mistress Albertine to stay with him, by buying her Fortuny gowns that “swarmed with Arabic ornaments, like the Venetian palaces hidden like sultanas behind a screen of pierced stone.”
Proust’s Muse, The Countess Greffulhe runs through January 7, 2016 at The Museum at FIT in NYC.


Mariano Fortuny
Jacket, circa 1912
Bronze green silk velvet printed with gold, matching belt
GAL1964.20.14AB, gift of the Gramont family to the Palais Galliera

palais-galliera-logos-sm

This exhibition was developed by the Palais Galliera, Fashion Museum of the City of Paris, Paris Musées.

Shoes

© Galliera / Roger-Viollet

© Galliera / Roger-Viollet

One of the most famous scenes in Proust’s novel occurs near the end of The Guermantes Way, when the Duchesse de Guermantes, “lifting her skirt,” begins to step into their carriage. Catching sight of her foot, her husband exclaims: “Oriane, what are you thinking of! You are still wearing your black shoes! With a red dress! Go upstairs, quickly, and put on your red shoes!” It is a devastating moment, because their friend Swann has just been telling them that he is dying – something they prefer not to hear, since they are late for a party.
In real life, another friend of Proust’s, Madame Strauss, did once put on black shoes with a red dress, and her husband angrily ordered her to change, but it was not under such circumstances of cruelty and selfishness. Proust simply ran upstairs to fetch the other pair of shoes. Thus, a writer takes elements from life and transforms them into art.
Proust’s Muse, The Countess Greffulhe runs through January 7, 2016 at The Museum at FIT in NYC.


Lagel-Meier
Pair of high-heeled shoes, circa 1905
Sheared velvet, leather
GAL1964.20.75, gift of the Gramont family to the Palais Galliera

palais-galliera-logos-sm

This exhibition was developed by the Palais Galliera, Fashion Museum of the City of Paris, Paris Musées.

Proust’s Latin Americans – Fashion Culture Event

mfit-event-prousts-latin-americans-Ruben-Gallo


How did Latin America influence Marcel Proust’s life & work? On Thursday, September 29 at 6pm, The Museum at FIT welcomed Rubén Gallo, professor of Latin American literature at Princeton University, for a presentation of his new book, Proust’s Latin Americans. Professor Gallo presented the amusing social history about the friendships & love affairs among a circle of Latin American friends that included the composer Reynaldo Hahn, Proust’s Venezuelan lover; Gabriel de Yturri, an Argentinean dandy; José-Maria de Heredia, a Cuban poet and early literary model; Antonio de La Gandara, a Mexican society painter; and Ramon Fernandez, a brilliant Mexican critic turned Nazi sympathizer.


A book signing followed the presentation. Video of this Fashion Culture event will be made available soon.