The Comedy of Fashion

Comedy of Fashion
A true performance can be observed in salons of major fashion houses. Messengers arriving from abroad, specifically from Berlin and Vienna, witness the appearance of some uncouth accent. This is not the best music to our ears… However, we put up with it, thinking that Parisian taste always tends to have the top prestige in the eyes of foreigners.
Buyers hardy ever frequent several big fashion salons at once. However, it is their turn now. It is the time for beautiful faces, elegant silhouettes, delicate Parisian ladies covered in furs, yet with naked ankles, in short skirts, light ankle boots, with tiny heads, decorated with a charming little hat skewing to the right or left eye, and with a bold and bouncy walk.
Numerous letters received from all sides prove that not all of Bakst’s fans managed to guess the name of the fashion house that took the lead in creating contemporary dresses based upon designs by the Russian artist. It is the Paquin fashion house that took up the challenge, and the result will be observed in the middle of the month. Our kind subscribers will be able to find a few lines about these dresses in the 20 March issue of Comédie illustre. They will satisfy their curiosity and get ready for visiting Rue De La Paix. An amazing artistic rivalry is unfolding everywhere in haute couture.
Jenny offers splendid costumes with neat silhouettes, of graceful shades of the beige and red colors. Popular Moujik blue crepe-de-chine dresses; red and blue Cardinal dress; women’s Cascadeur costume — a delightful white knee-length coat of embroidered silk fabric and satin black skirt.
Premet's specific feature is the high Mousmé belts [from Japanese musume for a “girl”] (hara-kiri dresses are a tremendous success). Beautiful originally cut manteaux go down to the ankle and open it up.
Buzenet’s evening gown is breaking another record; many of them have been described previously — the Thai one, with sophisticated simplicity, a mixture of silk and muslin, white color, with a ruby band embroidered in lemon, creating volume above the knees; Duchess — luxury cascades decorated with pearls, built in accordance with the transfer from white to steel and all the way to black. When it comes to day dresses, Buzenet makes use of lots of crepe fabric and Bulgarian ornaments. Fashionable gowns are a true adornment of the play Ambush by Kistemaeckers at Comédie-Française. In her Paquin evening gowns Mademoiselle Robinne displays a delightful Esther Meyer hat — every night she is encircled with Parisian ladies who have an eye for perfection in taste. The dresses and manteaux of Mademoiselle Faber bear the labels of the Premet house, and her hairdos and hats are ordered from Lewis, which also sets the hair of Miss Campton, the witty British–French star of Théâtre des Capucine. Lewis is omnipresent — it is on every stage and at all high society parties of Paris and Riviera.
Illustration: Mademoiselle Robinne of Comédie-Française in Ambush.
Hat — Esther Meyer