Sometimes in life we are presented with gifts that we simply do not recognize as gems until we are ready to receive them. In September, we had a visitor from Mendocino for a few days. He left us saying he was going to travel up the Columbia Gorge to Biggs and then cross the bridge to the Washington side. We bid farewell and told him to stay in touch. A few days later, we received a thank you postcard in the mail urging us, me in particular, to visit the Maryhill Museum where they had an exhibit of French fashions on miniature models. I was intrigued but too busy to drop everything and venture up there. Above is the photo of Maryhill, the castle overlooking the Columbia Gorge in all of its stark magnificence.
A few days ago, I happened to be in one of my favorite used bookstores poking around the shelves of books when I came across this book of the exhibit that my friend had been referring to. I opened the book and discovered it had been printed in Maryhill. I asked the book dealer about it and she was familiar with the exhibit. She then informed me that a well known textile collector and designer had recently passed away, and that she, as a bookseller had purchased a collection of this woman’s library. Now I had to make the trip to Maryhill. So yesterday I left the house early and headed up the highway to the museum, 100 miles east of Portland along the Columbia River. When I arrived I was immediately entranced and smitten by this castle amidst farmland and vineyards perched over the breathtaking view of the gorge, river, and snow-capped mountains.
Alma Spreckels as benefactor of the museum was instrumental in acquiring Theatre de la Mode for the Maryhill Museum in 1952. Until this time this exhibit had been housed in the basement of the City of Paris department store on Union Square in San Francisco, now the site of Neiman Marcus. When the exhibit had ended in San Francisco the organizers tried to send the mannequins back to Paris, but the originators were unwilling to pay the customs charges to have the dolls returned. The jewels used and made by Van Cleef and Arpels and Cartier were returned to France, but the small clothed and wired bodies were stored away.
After the French were released from the German occupation in 1944, there was a desire to refresh minds and stimulate some creative and uplifting ideas. The economy needed a boost as well. Robert Ricci, director general of the house of Ricci, was approached by the president of the organization responsible for securing and distributing war relief and was asked to organize an event that would show the continued vitality of the couture and fashion industry. Robert Ricci suggested arranging figurines in front of miniaturized theatrical sets designed by the most important graphic designers of the day. Dolls were to be dressed by the couturiers.
A young artist, Eliane Bonabel collaborated with another artist, Jean Saint-Marten to design 27 1/2″ mannequins fashioned of wire, figures that represented the female form in three dimensions. These were then sent to the couture houses for dressing. Some of the enthusiastic designers that participated were: Balenciaga, Pierre Balmain, Jacques Fath, Jeanne Lanvin, Nina Ricci, Paquin, Jean Patou, Schiaparelli, Madame Gres, and Worth.
Christian Berard was named artistic director, and he recruited his friends to design stage sets. The sets were designed to suggest different times of day so that morning, afternoon, or evening clothes were paired with the scenery.
The exhibit opened in Paris at the Musee des Arts Decoratif on the evening of March 27, 1945. The final venue was at the DeYoung museum in San Francisco in September of 1946.
In the late 1980′s, the French Fashion Industry rediscovered the mannequins, and they were returned to France in 1988 on a loan to the Musee Des Arts de la Mode, sorely in need of restoration.
They began the process of conserving the delicate fashions and re-creating 9 of the original 13 stage sets. Eliane Bonabel was still alive to assist in the restoration of the wire figures.
The exhibit opened to the public in Paris in May 1990. From there it moved to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and then onto the Hanae Mori Fashion Foundation in Tokoyo.
What struck me as I entered this exhibit was not only its magic, but its seemingly odd home in the middle of nowhere. Several nights before I had made the trip, I had awakened in the middle of the night with this haunting question…why Maryhill? This will be my next phase of this subject. The answer to this question is not only revealing, it is also quite remarkable and enchanting.
aha, the mystery element……
Mystery is a good hook, but I still think it is pretty good in describing a credible museum in the middle of nowhere.
How very exciting. Do you know if it will travel back to the DeYoung? I am sure that my grandmother went to the City of Paris to see this. That one coat that is bright pink with the black cuffs looks just like one of hers. I have a photo of that coat.
It looks like you had immense fun.
And just think of the people that helped assemble the sets (both now and then). What fun they had.
To see these in person is really nothing like the photos. The figures are so delicate, and the clothes elaborate and so detailed and remarkable, the a picture does not do them justice.
I think they were only stored in the basement of the City of Paris, never displayed there. I guess it was the best place for safe keeping after they left the DeYoung. They have been “owned” by Maryhill ever since.
Now that’s a teaser!
wow wow wow! I will have to send Steph [college girl] there as she has just discovered museums!
Now that would be the memory of her college years, or at least one of the unique ones. I would urge her to see this.
Get this …College Girl said “mom, they’re dolls…”
Mom zipped a reply right back to her….no no no, they AREN”T just dolls! She has a male friend that will like to see this museum, he took sewing in 10th grade and became a natural! All the girls in all the sewing classes groaned when they found something new on his mannequin.
Thanks Mom for your input! Yes they are much more than dolls! In fact when you see the exhibit you feel like you wish you could shrink yourself down to 27 and a half inches so you could ask the mannequins if you could try on some of their clothing!! As a side note, they are closed for the season now and will not re-open until mid-March. Also please share with your “College Girl” that there are other exhibits there that are wonderful…Rodin sculpture as well as the influence of the dancer, Loie Fuller, etc. It is not to be missed.
You have done it again, you darling woman! This post is magical. I had heard about the fashion dolls from a custom clothing seamstress here in Olympia. You really have a way of bringing these complex topics to life in just a few crisp paragraphs. Thank you so much. The dolls are so strangely life like, they aren’t like any other dolls I’ve seen. They are little actresses in a drama about the odd interface between high fashion and world war. Can’t wait for the unveiling of the secret about why Maryknoll…
What a nice and generous compliment. It would be worth your effort to see this because the mannequins are so very remarkable in so many ways. This kind of history I find so intriguing and captivating. I am still thinking about my day there and how exceptional and memorable it was. Art is so powerful, and I shutter to think how many wonderful past exhibits have languished and deteriorated in storage or been destroyed by war. The thought is heart-wrenching.
Speaking of art that is languising or destroyed by war, I must tell you someday about my experience of helping to bring contemporary Palestinian and Iraqi artists’ paintings to Olympia for a show several years ago. It was called Art Across Borders. It was a travelling exhibit throughout the U.S. Maybe I will do it in my blog, but it is a rather long story. Thank you for reminding me of it. J.M.
Well worth the journey to see such treasures, exquiste! A step back in time, I would love to see the exibits in the flesh. I also cannot help but remark on the incredible landscape of the Columbia Gorge. It looks like a lunar lanscape! Stark, and breathtakingly beautiful. Thanks Phyllis, as always, you are drawn to such wonderful lanscapes and textile adventures!Thanks for sharing Lois xx
The photos are beautiful and the view of the museum is tre magnifique. I enjoyed your visit and can’t wait for the continuation of the story.
While reading a book about Paris after the Liberation, I read about Parisienne Couture and how they needed to re-establish their position as the center of fashion, yet because of the War, they had nothing. These dolls were supposed to be an inexpensive way to present their couture for the first time since 1939.
Very interesting…
That is absolutely true. The museum has an in-depth book on the subject under the same name, Theatre de la Mode and you could probably find it at Amazon too. It really is quite a story from so many different points of view.
I forgot to ask you, what was the title of the book that you read?