Dying To Be Born Again

296 Pages·2012·1.31 MB·English

Dying To Be Born Again

Mortality, Immortality and the Fashion Model

Vol 1 of 2

Karen de Perthuis

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the
Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Department of Art History and Theory
University of Sydney
June 2003

© Karen de Perthuis 2003

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Abstract

The primary focus of this thesis is limited to the relationship between sartorial fashion
and the fashion model within the world of representation. This includes the forms of
fashion display and dissemination that existed prior to the establishment of the
modern fashion system—fashion dolls, fashion plates and illustration and the
mannequin de monde—as well as the fields where the fashion model as a modern
phenomenon came into being—fashion photography and the fashion parade. While
the portrait of feminine beauty and ideals in the fashion image betrays the imprint of
the representation of the female body in art, pornography and the entertainment
industries, this thesis argues for a reading of the fashion image and the fashion model
specifically through the prism of fashion which, as a quasi-autonomous system,
operates according to its own rules and has its own mode of being.

Since its inception, fashion has frustrated its critics and delighted its proponents with
a nonchalant rejection of the creations it had hitherto enthroned as essential. This
dedication to perpetual change and the ephemeral—the ‘death-wish’ that ensures the
continuation of fashion as a structure even as individual fashions are discarded—has
fascinated both those who have seriously contemplated fashion and those who
document the vicissitudes of fashion’s creations. For its critics, the sin fashion
commits in refusing to manifest itself in a permanent form of beauty is compounded
by its perceived attacks upon the body, cloaking it in a layer of artifice that distorts it
into ‘unnatural’ forms. This imposition by fashion on the body made from flesh and
blood is never fully realised. Rather it is only on the body in representation that
fashion can begin to escape the limitations imposed upon it by the human form and
give full reign to its creative impulse.

In the fashion image the fundamental principles of fashion—change and artifice—are
metaphorically expressed by the interplay of mortality and immortality on the body of
the model which, ultimately, serves as the blank canvas where fashion is free to invent
its imaginary self.

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Acknowledgments

My thanks go out to those who helped and supported me throughout the writing of this
thesis. Associate Professor Paul Redding spent several long sessions patiently explaining
aesthetic philosophy to me; Dr George Kouvaros gently persisted in reminding me I had
to stop enjoying myself and write and Blair French shared my frustration and, with great
humour, whinged with me about everything. John Spencer and Peter Wright at The
Schaeffer Fine Arts Library were extremely generous with their time and help, chasing up
obscure references and even tracking down sources from outside their own four walls;
Angela Milec and Sarah Ivens provided invaluable help with images and Indigo Blue
cheerfully sorted through the maze of administration with exceptional skill. Thanks also
to Dr Laleen Jayamanne, Professor Virginia Spate, Professor Terry Smith, Dr Julian
Pefanis, Dr Alan Cholodenko and all the staff and my fellow graduate students in the
Department of Art History and Theory. The staff and students at The Department of Film
and Theatre at the University of New South Wales provided a second intellectual home
and I thank them for treating me as one of their own.

Without my friends and family I would never have finished—they pretended to listen and
understand when I needed it most and ignored me when I decided to quit. Special thanks
to Ginger Briggs who, along with everything else, allowed me to mercilessly exploit her
editing skills. Gideon Warhaft provided technical help and Sally Warhaft, whose doctoral
timeline and crises mirrored my own, made the last crucial months seem less lonely. My
gratitude also to Caroline Warne and Don Miller Robinson for always being there and my
mother, Genevieve, who I can’t even begin to thank enough for all she has done.

Most of all my thanks go to my supervisor, Dr Michael Carter, whose thoughtful,
encouraging and amusing guidance inspired me to follow a path where I had no idea what
I would find. His ideas and suggestions are so much a part of this text that I have no doubt
it would have been a different—and lesser—work without him.

The research and writing of this thesis was facilitated by the financial support provided by
an Australian Postgraduate Award.

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This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my father who never judged but
encouraged me always.

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Contents

Acknowledgments iii

Dedication iv

List of Illustrations vii

Introduction 1

I.1 The Fashion Image
I.2 The Fashion Model
I.3 Icons of Femininity
I.4 Symbols of decay and desire
I.5 Parading Identity
I.6 Fashion’s Identity

Section I: The Pre-History of the Fashion Model

Chapter One: Pre-Industrial Fashion 30

1.1 The First Fashion Model
1.2 Fashion and Power
1.3 The Early Fashion Designer
1.4 Arbiters of Elegance
1.5 The Amateur Model
1.6 The Living Mannequin

Chapter Two: The Dissemination and Display of Fashion Ideas 60

2.1 Fashion Dolls
2.2 Fashion Plates and Fashion Illustration
2.3 The Illustrated Ideal
2.4 Early Fashion Photography
2.5 The Professional Model

Section II: The Aesthetic of Thinness

Chapter Three: The Modern Ideal 95

3.1 The Changing Feminine Ideal
3.2 The Mechanical Ideal
3.3 Modernism and Mobility
3.4 Art Deco Fashion Plates
3.5 Emerging Fashion Photography
3.6 The Modern Body

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Chapter Four: From Consumptive Chic to Junkie Chic 124

4.1 The Prototype Model
4.2 The Fashionable Body
4.3 Heroic flesh, saintly bones
4.4 Consumptive chic
4.5 Junkie Chic

Section III: Fashion’s Transformations

Introduction to Section III: Image/Clothing/Body 156

III.1 Image-clothing
III.2 Image-body
III.3 Counterimage

Chapter Five: The Shadow Side of Style 171

5.1 Endlessly New
5.2 The Dialogue Between Fashion and Death
5.3 Deathrow
5.4 Momento Moris
5.5 Fleeting Eternity
5.6 Eternal Fleetingness

Chapter Six: The Struggle Between Fashion and Nature 202

6.1 Fashionable Beauty
6.2 Fashion as Divine Artist
6.3 The Fashion/Body Split
6.4 An Artificial Humanity
6.5 Taking off the Body

Chapter Seven: The Synthetic Ideal 232

7.1 Artificial Nature
7.2 Immortal Beauty
7.3 Body as Garment
7.4 Fashion’s Imaginary

Bibliography 267

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List of Illustrations

Chapter One

1.1 Marie Worth. Hulton Getty Picture Collection.
1.2 Jan van Eyck. Jan Anolfini and his Wife. 1435. National Gallery, London.
1.3 Titian. Isabella of Portugal, Wife of Charles V. c1535. Prado, Madrid.
1.4 Seisenegger. Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol. 1542. Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna.
1.5 Largillière. Louis XIV and his Family. 1711. The Wallace Collection, London.
1.6 Pisanello. Designs for Court Costumes. Early fifteenth century. Musée Condé,
Chantilly.
1.7 Desrais. Costume of Court Lady under Louis XVI. 1774-6. Bibliothèque
Nationale, Cabinet des Estampes, Paris.
1.8 Le Clerc. Suit Imitated from the Time of Henry IV. 1774-6. Bibliothèque
Nationale, Cabinet des Estampes, Paris.
1.9 François Boucher (attrib.). La Marchande de Modes. 1746. The Wallace
Collection, London.
1.10 Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun. Portrait of Marie-Antoinette. c 1783. The National
Gallery of Art, Washington.
1.11 Jean Fouquet. Virgin and Child, aka Agnes Sorel. c 1480. Museum for Fine
Arts, Antwerp.
1.12 François Boucher. La Marquise de Pompadour. 1759. The Wallace Collection,
London.

Chapter Two

2.1 English fashion doll in wood. c1750.
2.2 Fashion doll’s court dress. 1770s. Museum of Costume, Bath.
2.3 French doll with biscuit head dressed in the fashion of 1870.
2.4 Carved wooden doll, possibly of French origin. c 1580.
2.5 Albrecht Durer. Venetian Woman. c 1495-1510. Albertina, Vienna.
2.6 Enea Vico. A Lady of France. 1556. Front view.
2.7 Enea Vico. A Lady of France. 1556. Back view.
2.8 Bonnart. The Archduchess, Marie-Elisabeth of Austria. 1700. Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris.
2.9 Bonnart. The Princess Marie-Gabrielle of Savoy. 1701. Bibliothèque
Nationale, Paris.
2.10 Augustin de Saint-Aubin. Ceremonial ball-gown. La Gallerie des Modes.
c1786.
2.11 Georges Pilotelle. English evening dress. The Queen. 1900. Victoria and
Albert Museum, London.
2.12 B.C. and Defernevelle. Elegant beach wear. Le Journal des Demoiselles. 1897.
2.13 Neubauer. Paris Fashion. Journal des Dames et des Modes. July, 1798. Musée
Carnavalet, Paris.
2.14 From a series published by Basset. 1798-99.
2.15 Pierre-Louis Pierson. Alta. 1863-66.
2.16 London and Paris fashions. 1864.
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2.17 Horace Vernet. From his series, Le Bon Genre. Paris, 1811. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York.
2.18 Friedrich Seidenstucker. Untitled photograph. 1930.
2.19 Anais Toudouze. ‘Toilettes du soir’. Le Follet. 1863. B.T. Batsford Archive.
2.20 L’Art de la Mode. Reproduction of a fashion photograph. 1880. Musée de la
Mode et du Costume, Paris.
2.21 La Mode Pratique. Photo engraving. 1894.
2.22 Pierre-Louis Pierson. The Red Bow. 1861-7. Anonymous painter.
2.23 Pierre-Louis Pierson. La Dogaresse. 1861-7. Anonymous painter.
2.24 Les Modes. ‘Evening robe in Venetian lace’. Designed by Jacques Doucet.
January 1903. Fashion Research Centre, Bath.
2.25 The Duke of Edinburgh and The Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna. Tailor
and Cutler. c1870.
2.26 Oriental evening dress, shot silver tissue and orange tulle. Designed by Lucile.
British Vogue. 1919. Anonymous model.
2.27 Hoppé. Musical comedy actress, Molly Ramsden. British Vogue. c1916.
2.28 The Duchess de Gramont costumed by Vionnet for the Chinese Bal de l’Opéra
in Paris 1923. British Vogue.
2.29 Picasso. At the Races. 1901. Private collection.
2.30 Fashion show at Wanamaker’s department store, Philadelphia. 1910.
Illustrated London News.
2.31 Paul Poiret in London with his ‘four graces’.

Chapter Three

3.1 British Vogue. April 2000. Advertisement for Jitrois stretch leather.
3.2 Lillian Russell, British Music Hall star. Archive Photos.
3.3 Man Ray. Nancy Cunard. British Vogue. 1927.
3.4 Gabrielle Chanel. 1929. Hulton Deutsch Collection.
3.5 Chanel’s dress in black crepella as shown in British Vogue. 1926.
3.6 Chanel’s ‘little black dress’ in the exhibition Cubism and Fashion. The
Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998.
3.7 Chanel with a group of mannequins, 1930’s. Roger Schall.
3.8 Fashion parade. Photo by Chris Moore.
3.9 ‘Tiller Girls’. Berlin, Weimar Period.
3.10 Gino Severini. Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin. 1912. Oil on canvas
with sequins. New York, The Museum of Modern Art.
3.11 Jean Béraud. Jardin de Paris. The Night Beauties. c1905. Musée Carnavalet,
Paris.
3.12 George Seurat. Study for A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (detail). 1884. Chicago
Art Institute.
3.13 Jean Béraud. Place de la Concorde. c1895. Musée Carnavalet, Paris.
3.14 Edward Steichen. Vogue. December, 1926.
3.15 Mlle Lantelme in a peignoir by Madeleine Vionnet. 1908. Photo Collection
Union Francaise des Arts du Costume.
3.16 George Hoyningen-Huene. Gown by Heim. British Vogue. 1931.
3.17 Edward Steichen. ‘Robe Strozzi’, designed by Paul Poiret. Art et Décoration.
April 1911.
3.18 Paul Iribe. Les robes de Paul Poiret. 1908. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
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3.19 Georges Lepape. Les choses de Paul Poiret. 1911. Musée de la Mode et du
Costume, Paris.
3.20 Thayaht. Cape by Vionnet. Gazette du Bon Ton. 1922.
3.21 Bakst. ‘Philomela’, a Bakst design produced by Paquin. La Gazette du Bon
Ton. 1913.
3.22 Edward Steichen. Vogue. 1932.
3.23 Baron de Meyer. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in Persian costume by Léon
Bakst. Vogue. Jan 15, 1913.
3.24 Gladys Cooper in Molyneux sheath and cloak. British Vogue. 1923.
3.25 Illustration by Douglas Pollard. Dress designed by Vionnet. British Vogue.
1925.
3.26 Dress designed by Vionnet. British Vogue. 1927.
3.27 Barbier. Evening coat by Worth. La Gazette du Bon Ton. 1923.
3.28 Edward Steichen. Dress designed by Lanvin. Cape by Chéruit. Modelled by
Marion Morehouse. British Vogue. 1925.
3.29 Cecil Beaton. The three stages of retouching.
3.30 Benito. Evening coat by Beer. La Gazette du Bon Ton. 1921.

Chapter Four

4.1 Romaine Brooks. Le Trajet. c1911. National Museum of American Art.
4.2 Stella Tenant in Chanel.
4.3 Richard Avedon. Dovima. Dress by Dior. Harper’s Bazaar. September, 1955.
4.4 Givenchy haute couture, Spring/Summer 1996. Designed by John Galliano.
Photo: B. Pellerin, Givenchy archive.
4.5 Ck One advertisement. The Face. Sept. 1995.
4.6 ‘Kamata’, Christian Dior haute couture, Spring/Summer 1997. Designed by
John Galliano. Vogue, Paris. March 1997. Michael Thompson.
4.7 Vogue, Australia. March, 2003. Russell Pell.
4.8 Giorgio Correggiarri. ‘Untitled’. 1998. Vogue Italia. October 1998.
4.9 Ceres. Rome. Vatican Museum.
4.10 Titian. Sacred and Profane Love. c1514. Galleria Borghese, Rome.
4.11 Gainsborough. Lady Gertrude Alston. 1750. Louvre, Paris.
4.12 Titian. Venus of Urbino. 1538. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
4.13 Rogier van der Weyden. Last Judgement (detail). Beaune.
4.14 Van der Goes. Adam and Eve. Vienna.
4.15 Pisanello. Luxuria. Early fifteenth century. Albertina, Vienna
4.16 Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The Annunciation. 1850. The Tate Gallery, London.
4.17 Ingres. Louise de Brogli, Comtesse d’Haussonville (detail). 1842. The Frick
Collection, New York.
4.18 Gustave Moreau. Orphée. 1865. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
4.19 Craig McDean. Jil Sander advertisement. Spring/Summer 1996.
4.20 Corinne Day. Georgina, Brixton. London, 1995.
4.21 Jean Baptiste Mondino. ‘The Usual Suspects’. The Face. January 1996.
4.22 Corinne Day. Kate Moss. ‘Under Exposure’. British Vogue. 1993.
4.23 Jodie Kidd on the catwalk. Sunday Telegraph. 15 October, 1995.
4.24 Corinne Day. ‘Rose, Brewer Street, London.’ The Face. 1993.
4.25 ‘Real Life. Waif-like.’ Vogue Australia. November, 1996. Nicolas Samartis.
4.26 Steven Meisel. Calvin Klein advertisement. L’Uomo Vogue. 1995.
4.27 ‘Internal Affairs.’ The Face. January 1997.
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4.28 Guido Mocafico. ‘Bone Idle.’ The Face. August 2001.
4.29 Hans Baldung-Grien. The Three Ages and Death. 1539. Museo del Prado,
Madrid.

Introduction to Section Three

III.1 Naomi Campbell at Vivienne Westwood. 1993. Photo: Rex Features.
III.2 John Galliano for Christian Dior Couture. Spring/Summer 2003.
III.3 Hussein Chalayan. ‘Afterwords’. Autumn/ Winter 2000. Photo: Marcus
Tomlinson.
III.4 Francisco de Goya. The Nude Maya. c1798. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
III.5 Francisco de Goya. The Clothed Maya. c1798. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Chapter Five

5.1 Issey Miyake. 1995. Photo: Chris Moore.
5.2 Ulrike Ottinger. Freak Orlando. 1981. Photo: Anthology Film Archives.
5.3 Cornelie Tollens. ‘States’. c1998.
5.4 ‘Sentenced to Death’. United Colours of Benetton advertisement. The Face.
March 2000.
5.5 Erwin Blumenfeld. Vogue (cover). March 15, 1945.
5.6 Cecil Beaton. Fashion by Balmain. Vogue. December 15, 1945.
5.7 Clifford Coffin. Fashion by Rahvis. British Vogue. June 1947.
5.8 Irving Penn. Fashion by Rochas. Modelled by Lisa Fonssagrives. Vogue.
September 15, 1950.
5.9 Richard Avedon. Suzy Parker and Mike Nichols. Coat by Saint Laurent. The
American Hospital, Paris. Harper’s Bazaar. September, 1962.
5.10 Bob Richardson. Fashion by Clobber. Modelled by Anjelica Huston. Nova.
January 1972.
5.11 Guy Bourdin. Coat by Leonard. Hat by Orcel. Vogue Paris. August, 1960.
5.12 Guy Bourdin. Hat by Dior. Vogue Paris. April, 1959.
5.13 Guy Bourdin. Charles Jourdan advertisement. Spring 1975.
5.14 Guy Bourdin. Vogue Paris (cover). December 1969.
5.15 Guy Bourdin. Bourdin personal archives.
5.16 Deborah Turbeville. Vogue. 1975.
5.17 Guido Mocafico. The Face. c1999.

Chapter Six

6.1 Meret Oppenheim. The Couple. 1956. Private collection.
6.2 Joseph Cornell. Untitled. c1930s. Joseph & Robert Cornell Memorial
Foundation and The Pace Gallery, New York.
6.3 Grandville. ‘The marine life collection, showing that underwater plants and
animals are based in forms invented by man—fans, wigs, combs, brushes, etc.’
Un Autre Monde. 1844.
6.4 Grandville. ‘Flowers and fruit rejoice the coming of spring.’ Un Autre Monde.
1844.
6.5 Grandville. ‘An interplanetary bridge; Saturn’s ring is an iron balcony.’ Un
Autre Monde. 1844.
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