Mannequins on Parade

Sorry I've been a bit "absent" over the past few days -- both literally and figuratively! But, I wanted to end this stressful work week with a post and some photos inspired by all of the exciting buzz on NYC fashion week. I just found out my sister will be going to some of the shows tonight and I am JEALOUS! [If you are reading this Lindsay, I am holding up my fist in the air and shaking it angrily as I sit at my desk studying on a Friday night!] I wonder who she will run into?? I have to be honest, I've lost interest in current models for the most part [I just care about the clothes nowadays], but I am fascinated by the history of runway shows and "mannequin parades," as they were called up through the 1950's.

The stern, but elegant lady pictured above is Lady Duff Gordon [or Lucile, as she called herself], and she is widely known as the inventor of the fashion show. She trained the first professional models (the mannequins) beginning in 1897, as well as staging the first runway, or "catwalk," style shows.




French designer Jean Patou was also an innovator of the fashion show. He marketed his clothing to wealthy American women in the 20's and 30's and would often recruit American models for his Paris fashion shows. Isn't he dapper?

And of course, the incomparable Coco Chanel, whose designs were integral to the creation of the image of the Flapper in the 1920's, helped to standardize the look and walk of models during the period. [Chanel is pictured seated above with her mannequins and wearing her famous black jersey suit].

Models were always somewhat controversial ; though the level of undress during the early 20th century fashion shows was nothing compared to those of today, many people were shocked by their appearance.

According to fashion historian Caroline Evans, "The very uniformity of 1920s fashions was disturbing to some critics, and the New Woman's appearance increasingly troubled moralists in the 1920s precisely because, masked in heavy make-up, with shingled hair and "flapper" mannerisms, the wife of the respectable industrialist could no longer be distinguished from the working girl.

Like the fake jewelry that Chanel popularized in the 1920s, the fashion show strung the mannequins together like false pearls: too lustrous, too uniform, and too perfect for plausibility, they incarnated the treacherous and uncanny instability of appearances."

Here are some more photos of early mannequin parades:

Have a lovely weekend everyone...and don't forget to strut your stuff a little...who needs a runway!? Teehee.