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Worth Tea Gown

By The Museum at FIT
In Objects
Tagged with 1897 dress installation tea gown velvet Worth
On 26 Oct | '2016

L: © Stéphane Piera / Galliera / Roger-Viollet
R: Photo by Eileen Costa. © 2016 The Museum at FIT

Photograph © Zach Hilty/BFA.com

The Countess Greffulhe often chose clothing of a brilliant green color, because it complemented her auburn hair. Her audacious style is epitomized by this extremely elegant tea gown, simultaneously a reception dress and a robe d’intérieur, which she wore to receive intimate friends at home in the late afternoon. The large motifs on the gown are typical of the spectacular historicizing textiles commissioned by Jean-Philippe Worth, director of the era’s most famous couture house.

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

Worth
Tea-gown, circa 1897
Blue cut velvet on a green satin ground, Valenciennes lace, lining in shot silk taffeta
GAL1964.20.4, gift if the Gramont family to the Palais Galliera

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

Worth “Lily Dress”

By The Museum at FIT
In Objects
Tagged with 1896 dress installation lily velvet Worth
On 20 Oct | '2016

L: © L. Degrâces et Ph. Joffre / Galliera / Roger-Viollet
R: Photo by Eileen Costa. © 2016 The Museum at FIT

L: Photo by Eileen Costa. © 2016 The Museum at FIT
R: Photograph © Zach Hilty/BFA.com

The Countess Greffulhe patronized the greatest couturiers of her time, but she was often the real creator of her dresses. This is certainly true of the famous “lily dress.” It has a princess line that was atypical for the period, but very flattering to her tall, slender figure, and the Bertha collar resembled bat wings, alluding to Robert de Montesquiou’s personal symbol, the bat. Finally, the motif of fleurs de lys refers to a verse he composed in her honor: “Like a beautiful silver lily with black pistil eyes.” She had herself photographed by Paul Nadar, wearing this dress and posing in front of a mirror.

Robert de Montesquiou by Boldini, 1896.
Musée d’Orsay, Paris

“Her dresses, invented for her or by her, must resemble no one else’s,” observed the press, adding that she preferred to look “bizarre” rather than “banal.” The writer Edmund de Goncourt admired her “supreme aristocratic and artistic elegance,” but he also once described the Countess Greffulhe as “a distinguished eccentric,” adding that she reminded him of a “female version” of Count Robert de Montesquiou.

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

Worth
Evening gown, known as “La Robe aux Lis” (the lily dress), circa 1896, altered later
Black silk velvet, ivory silk satin appliqués in the form of lilies embroidered with metal sequins and glass pearls; modern collar
GAL1978.20.1, gift of the duc de Gramont to the Musée Galliera

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

Worth: garden-party dress

By The Museum at FIT
In Objects
Tagged with dress pink Worth
On 5 Oct | '2016

© Julien Vidal / Galliera / Roger-Viollet

Élisabeth, the Countess Greffulhe, wore this dress on May 30, 1894, to a garden party given by her uncle, Count Robert de Montesquiou. It was at this party that she met Marcel Proust. Writing for Le Gaulois under the pseudonym “Tout-Paris,” Proust described her appearance: “Madame la comtesse Greffulhe was delightfully attired in a pink lilac silk dress printed all over with orchids and covered in silk chiffon of the same shade, her hat was in bloom with orchids surrounded by lilac gauze.”

Many years later, Proust was partly inspired by the Countess Greffulhe to create the fictional Duchesse de Guermantes. However, he transferred her love of pink and mauve to another character, Odette de Crécy, who first appears in his novel as the mysterious “lady in pink.” Orchids are also explicitly associated with Odette’s love affair with Swann.

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

Worth
Garden-party dress, 1894
Silk taffeta printed with orchid motif, silk chiffon
GAL1964.20.7, gift of the Gramont family to the Palais Galliera

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

Maison Soinard

By The Museum at FIT
In Objects
Tagged with 1887 dress Maison Soinard pink
On 14 Sep | '2016

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

In 1878, at the age of eighteen, the beautiful Princess Élisabeth de Caraman-Chimay married the wealthy Viscount (later Count) Henry Greffulhe. Most of the bride’s trousseau was made by Maison Soinard. Almost a decade later, she commissioned from the same couture house this elegant day dress in one of her favorite colors, old rose.

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

Maison Soinard
Day dress, circa 1887
Antique pink silk satin, brown silk velvet appliqués
GAL1964.20.3 gift of the Gramont family to the Palais Galliera