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Nina Ricci Evening Ensemble with Bolero

By The Museum at FIT
In Objects
Tagged with 1937 bolero cape Countess Greffulhe dress feathers installation Nina Ricci silk
On 3 Jan | '2017

L: © Zach Hilty/BFA.com© Julien Vidal / Galliera / Roger-Viollet

L: © Zach Hilty/BFA.com
R: © Julien Vidal / Galliera / Roger-Viollet

Even as an older woman, the Countess Greffulhe always sought to attract the gaze of observers. In an early draft of Sodom and Gomorah, Proust attributed an anecdote told of her to the fictional Princesse de Guermantes, who says, “I shall know I’ve lost my beauty when people stop turning to stare at me” to which another character replies, “Never fear, my dear, so long as you dress as you do, people will always turn and stare.”

Left: Nina Ricci
Evening ensemble, dress and cape, circa 1937
Silk crepe, silk muslin, ostrich feathers
GAL1964.20.41ABC, gift of the Gramont family to the Palais Galliera

Right: Nina Ricci
Bolero, circa 1937
Silk crepe, silk muslin, ostrich feathers
GAL1964.20.41ABC, 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.

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

Vitaldi Babani Evening Coats

By The Museum at FIT
In Objects
Tagged with 1920 coat Countess Greffulhe silk taffeta velvet Vitaldi Babani
On 29 Nov | '2016

Photographs © Zach Hilty/BFA.com

Left: The Countess Greffulhe was a pioneering fundraiser for the arts and a great supporter of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Leon Bakst’s brilliantly colored dance costumes and sets inspired both fashion and interior design. The Countess’s flowing robes and coats by Babani and Fortuny created a similarly exotic effect.

Vitaldi Babani
Coat, circa 1920
Printed and embroidered silk chiffon
GAL1964.20.18, gift of the Gramont family to the Palais Galliera

Right: After her daughter grew up, the Countess Greffulhe stopped wearing pink, which was associated with youth. However, she continued to wear green. The Japonism for which Babani was famous is exemplified by this green velvet evening coat with a kimono-like silhouette.

Vitaldi Babani
Evening coat, circa 1920
Silver lamé, black silk, emerald green velvet, black taffeta
GAL1964.20.16, 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.

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

Pierre Bulloz Evening Dress

By The Museum at FIT
In Objects
Tagged with 1913 dress installation Pierre Bulloz silk
On 21 Nov | '2016

Photograph © Zach Hilty/BFA.com

This beautiful black evening dress, embroidered with black and violet sequins, shows how the Countess Greffulhe retained her dramatic signature style, while also adapting to evolving fashions in the twentieth century.

Pierre Bulloz
Evening dress, circa 1913
Silk satin, chiffon, and tulle, embroidered with sequins, tassels with glass faceted pearls
GAL1980.189.12, gift of the duc de Gramont to the Palais Galliera

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

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

Vitaldi Babani

By The Museum at FIT
In Objects
Tagged with 1912 caftan coat Fortuny green grey silk taffeta velvet Vitaldi Babani
On 17 Nov | '2016

Photograph © Zach Hilty/BFA.com

Far left: Attributed to Babani, this evening coat is strongly influenced by Fortuny. In particular, the floral and vegetal motifs of the fabric recall Fortuny’s love of Renaissance textiles, which were themselves heavily influenced by imported Asian textiles. Made of green velvet, lined in red taffeta, and fastened with a Murano glass button, it is one of many Orientalist garments worn by the Countess Greffulhe during the 1910s and 1920s. Notice again her love of green.

Attributed to Vitaldi Babani
Evening coat, circa 1912
Green silk velvet printed with gold, glass buttons
GAL1964.20.13, gift of the Gramont family to the Palais Galliera

Near Left: In the years prior to World War I, the Countess Greffulhe began to support the Ballets Russes, and her personal style also increasingly gravitated toward Orientalist garments. The house of Vitaldi Babani specialized in the sale of Japanese kimonos and garments by Fortuny and Liberty, before starting to create their own designs, such as this gown in the form of a caftan, which was originally worn, slightly bloused, over a sash.

Vitaldi Babani
Indoor gown, circa 1912
Grey silk taffeta with painted pochoir decoration, silk passementerie, glass buttons, lined in orange silk taffeta
GAL1964.20.12, 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.

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

Worth “Byzantine dress”

By The Museum at FIT
In Objects
Tagged with 1904 Countess Greffulhe dress silk Worth
On 7 Nov | '2016

© L. Degrâces et Ph. Joffre / Galliera / Roger-Viollet

At the wedding of her daughter Élaine, the Countess Greffulhe wore this sensational “Byzantine empress” gown, ensuring that press attention focused on the mother of the bride. Indeed, the bride’s dress was hardly mentioned at all. According to La Vie Parisienne, “As luck would have it, Madame Greffulhe reached the top of the steps a long time before her daughter and was able to remain there for about a quarter of an hour, in full view of everyone.” The dress bears a Worth label, but in his memoirs, Paul Poiret claimed to have designed it.

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

Worth
“Byzantine dress,” 1904
Lamé taffeta, silk and gold thread, silk tulle, embroidered with glass pearls and metal sequins, fur (originally sable, replaced during restoration in the 1980s with rabbit).
GAL1978.20.2, gift of the duc de Gramont to the Palais Galliera

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

Maison A. Félix House Coat

By The Museum at FIT
In Objects
Tagged with 1895 A. Félix coat green silk
On 2 Nov | '2016

Robert de Montesquiou appreciated Élisabeth Greffulhe’s taste and often commented on her fashions, such as a garment of “green shot silk, mixed with violet, which gave her the appearance of a Lorelei” (i.e., a siren or mermaid). This green shot silk housecoat is by the couturier, A. Félix.

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

Maison A. Félix
House coat, circa 1895
Shot silk taffeta, silk braid trimming with metallic thread
GAL1964.20.5, 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.

Worth Evening Cape

By The Museum at FIT
In Objects
Tagged with 1896 cape installation silk Worth
On 13 Oct | '2016

© Patrick Pierrain / Galliera / Roger-Viollet

Photo by Eileen Costa. © 2016 The Museum at FIT

During his visit to Paris in 1896, Tsar Nicolas II of Russia gave the Countess Greffulhe a rich court robe called a khalat from Boukhara (in present-day Uzbekistan, but then part of the Russian Empire). She had it transformed into an evening cape by Jean-Philippe Worth, and was photographed wearing it by Otto Wegener. Eight years later, she had the cape altered slightly in conformance with contemporary fashion, creating a sensation when she wore “her great Russian cape of cloth of gold” to a gala benefiting wounded Russian soldiers.

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

Worth
Evening cape, known as the “Russian cape,” circa 1896, altered 1904
Embroidered maroon silk velvet with a roseate pattern, metal yarn, machine lace, braid with multi-colored silk thread, gold lamé taffeta, cotton tulle
GAL1980.189.16, gift of the duc de Gramont to the Palais Galliera

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