I love this picture of Elsie de Wolfe’s party in Paris from July 1939 because it shows how the postwar ‘New Look’ silhouette was already underway before the war stymied style and forced a different direction in fashion for the duration of the conflict:
Categories
- Accessories (23)
- Announcements (18)
- As Seen In (43)
- Beauty & Cosmetics (57)
- Books (39)
- Canadian dress (267)
- Celebrity brands (4)
- Classics (4)
- Clothing customs (34)
- Costuming (11)
- Deja Views (2)
- Designers/Couturiers (107)
- Ethnographic (10)
- Fadshions (25)
- fancy dress (22)
- Fashion (98)
- Fashion History Museum (102)
- Fashion in song (106)
- fashion industry (46)
- fashionistas (2)
- Faux Pas (14)
- film costuming (99)
- gender (20)
- Glossary (33)
- history (36)
- Humour (27)
- jewellery (8)
- Men's fashion (60)
- millinery (53)
- Miscellaneous (34)
- Museum Exhibitions (68)
- Myth Information (32)
- Obscurier Couturiers (63)
- Off the Rack (8)
- Other collections/museums (24)
- Patent fashions (34)
- Photos (55)
- Retailing (59)
- Ritual – Hatch/Match/Dispatch (11)
- Shoes (133)
- Shop Windows (22)
- sportswear (54)
- Style shakers (14)
- Textiles (49)
- underwear (34)
- Vintage Cleaning tips (5)
- Vintage clothing (39)
Meta
Love the hand kissing! And is that Fred Astaire in the foreground?
I don’t think Fred Astaire was part of her social circle, but he may have been. I know Chanel was.
I have a gorgeous Angele Delanghe blue satin gown from this year that exactly shows where fashion was headed just before the war! (Unfortunately the colour of the blue satin is rather uneven but it’s still an incredible example of London haute couture design right before the war.)