The Theatre of Fashion
Staging Haute Couture in Early 20th Century France
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4898832 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nancy J Troy (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2001 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-32 |
| Publication date | 2001-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Theatre Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0192-2882 • E-ISSN: 1086-332X |
| Publisher | Project MUSE (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1353/tj.2001.0026 |
| OpenAlex | W2068937305 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 4 |
In the modern period the connections between fashion and theatre are multiple, encompassing not simply the design of costumes for the stage, or the dramatic potential of fashion shows, or even the performative aspect of wearing clothes, but also the exploitation of the "star" system for the commercial purpose of launching new clothing styles. The familiar commodity tie-ins that in the 1930s enlisted Hollywood movie stars in the promotion of consumer products to female audiences of films were already operational, although in somewhat less sophisticated form, in the early twentieth-century French theatre of fashion that is the focus of the present essay. Indeed, a parallel exists between the advertising purpose behind the Hollywood movie industry's strategic positioning of domestic furnishings, kitchen implements, clothing, and cosmetics on the screen in close visual or narrative proximity to a star actress and the ubiquitous presence in early twentieth-century French theatre and fashion magazines of famous stage actresses featured in full-length portrait photographs accompanied in each case by a prominent caption identifying not only the actress and the title of the dramatic production in which she starred, but also the designer of the dress she wore and, in some instances, that couturier's business [End Page 1] address as well (Figure 1). Without any clearcut evidence that these latter images were to be understood either as advertising on one hand or as visual support for editorial copy on the other, they functioned ambiguously, and perhaps for that reason especially effectively, to convey the impression that the stars were "endorsing their favourite couturiers' clothes and encouraging readers to follow suit." 1 If in such circumstances the actress appeared to be making an independent decision about which clothes she chose to wear on stage, there were others in which her role was merely that of a mannequin, a living fashion model, in a dramatic production that amounted to little more than a convenient vehicle for promoting a couturier's commercial interests
Advertising · Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Business · Clothing · Hollywood · Literature · Narrative · Performative utterance · Period (music · Portrait · Visual arts · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · History
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,17 |
| Citation span | 2014 - 2024 (11) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |