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- [00:03]
Robin
Hey, it's Robin here from PRX and I want to tell you about a brand new show in the Radiotopia family, an exciting partnership with our friends at the Rock and Roll hall of Fame and fellow indie network Talkhouse. It's called Music Makes Us and it's hosted by cultural icon the legendary Kathleen Hanna, the frontwoman of Bikini Kill and Latigra. She sits down with revolutionary musicians like Chaka Khan, Olivia Rodrigo and Hayley Williams of Paramore Hannah to speak about the things artists really want to talk about. Perfect lyrics, unforgettable shows, treasured artifacts, and even snacks from the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, Radiotopia and talk House Music Makes us Out now wherever you listen to podcasts.
- [00:50]
Narrator
If your depression, anxiety or ADHD is more than just a rough patch, you might need more than a meditation app. And you might need more than therapy. I mean, therapy is super helpful helpful, but it's not often the whole solution. Tochiatry gives you access to real psychiatric care with licensed clinicians who can diagnose and prescribe medication. It's a simple way to get effective treatment right from your home. I'll be honest, I'm on an antidepressant and going to an online doctor was really helpful because I think I was embarrassed to go in person. Tochiatry is a 100% online psychiatry practice for conditions like ADHD, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, PTSD, insomnia, and more. Head to TokyoTry.com articles and complete the short assessment to get matched with an in network psychiatrist in a few minutes. That's tochiatry.com articles to get matched in minutes.
- [01:52]
Robin
This show is supported by Odoo. When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way you can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out odoo-o o.com that's o d.
- [02:20]
Interviewer/Host
O o.com the following is one of my favorite stories I have ever had the privilege of making. It came out in 2020. I remember I finished it in my apartment during lockdown and since there've been a lot of new updates that have happened. So first I'll play the piece and then there'll be a little tiny follow up. Enjoy.
- [02:40]
Narrator
Linda Tessner wanted out.
- [02:42]
Linda Tessner
I did not love living in the Middle West. The Midwest. And I really wanted to move.
- [02:47]
Narrator
Linda went to Ohio State University for her master's in art history. And when she graduated in the early 80s, she was ready to hightail it out to New York or Boston.
- [02:56]
Linda Tessner
I wanted a museum job, but institution.
- [02:59]
Narrator
After institution, Linda was striking out. Then one day, Linda was flipping through a newsletter for museum professionals, and she saw a job listing to be the director at a place in Washington state called the Mary Hill Museum of Art.
- [03:16]
Linda Tessner
And I thought, what the heck is this? And at the time, there was no Internet in 1983. There was no way to kind of check it up or look at their website. I had no idea what this museum was about, but I sent them my materials anyway.
- [03:29]
Narrator
Even though Linda was 26 years old and had never worked in museum management and didn't know this place at all, she got the job. And it was only then that Linda learned exactly where she was moving.
- [03:42]
Linda Tessner
Mary Hill Museum is in the middle of nowhere. The closest town is Goldendale, Washington, which is 13 miles away.
- [03:48]
Narrator
The Mary Hill Museum of Art is a stately mansion perched on top of a cliff by the Columbia River. Gorgeous. It's stunning, but it looks like it was just cut and pasted onto the Lewis and Clark Trail. It has absolutely no other buildings around it.
- [04:08]
Linda Tessner
It's a very curious place because you drive to it and the museum just unfolds like a castle on the banks of the river, surrounded by basically nothing but hills.
- [04:19]
Narrator
This is not what Linda was picturing when she got into the arts. She grew up reading fashion magazines, getting up on culture.
- [04:26]
Linda Tessner
Glamour was kind of my bible for a long time. I mean, as a teenager, I read every single issue of Seventeen magazine.
- [04:32]
Narrator
And then jump cut to Linda at 26 years old, looking out over a vast expanse of the Columbia River.
- [04:39]
Linda Tessner
A friend of mine said that she gave me a year because I couldn't live among cowboys.
- [04:44]
Narrator
The Mary Hill Museum of Art is surrounded by acres and acres, acres of ranch land. Visitors usually found the museum by accident as they were driving back from ski trips. The closest thing to a restaurant was the nearest gas station. The closest building at all was two miles away, a small cottage owned by the museum. That's where Linda lived, mostly alone. Why were you alone? You moved with your husband.
- [05:12]
Linda Tessner
My husband was a research glaciologist, and he was on expeditions about nine months out of every year. So even before our marriage fell apart, I was living alone mostly. So it was mostly just me living there with a big dog.
- [05:23]
Narrator
Linda's big dog was her protector, barking at the rattlesnakes. That appeared in her yard and sometimes in her basement.
- [05:29]
Linda Tessner
I don't know. I was a braver person when I was 26 and stupid.
- [05:32]
Narrator
As for the collection, what was actually inside the Mary Hill Museum of Art, it was all over the place, as random and fascinating as its location, because the whole museum was created as a lark by four random, fascinating friends. The main founder was businessman Sam Hill. He's friend number one. He began construction on this beautiful mansion in 1914 and named it Mary Hill. And there's some debate about whether he named it for his wife or his daughter because they were both named Mary Hill. Sam Hill roped in friend number two, Loey Fuller, a famous modern dancer, performance artist and friend to the sculptor Rodin. She helped bring in a collection of Rodin's original casts to Mary Hill. The third friend was Queen Marie of Romania. She had met Sam Hill in his world travels, and she is why the atrium of the Mary Hill Museum of Art is full of beautiful Romanian furniture. And the fourth and most important friend, at least for Linda, was Alma de Bretteville Spreckels. She was the wife of Adolf Spreckels, head of the Spreckles Sugar Company.
- [06:47]
Linda Tessner
When I was a little girl, the boxes of sugar in our kitchen were always Spreckles Sugar.
- [06:51]
Narrator
Alma became one of the museum's first trustees and foremost benefactors. Her donation to the museum collection would have the biggest impact on Linda's life. And it was a bunch of creepy dolls.
- [07:08]
Linda Tessner
I shouldn't say this, but I thought they were the most macabre objects I'd ever seen.
- [07:12]
Narrator
When Linda got to Maryhill, she stumbled on a glass case full of these dolls. And they weren't like baby dolls. They were clearly supposed to be adults, but they were thin and skeletal and looked like they were out of the Nightmare before Christmas.
- [07:27]
Linda Tessner
Some of them were taken apart, so you'd see a mannequin, a wire mannequin with a disembodied head. You see these parts, little shoes, little purses, these wire bodies, these very blank ghost like faces.
- [07:42]
Narrator
The dolls were 27 inches tall, about double the length of your forearm. And they all wore strange dirty dresses and mismatched jackets, all bedraggled from years of volunteers playing with them and switching up their outfits. There were around 50 of these dolls displayed in the glass case, all just bunched up close together like they were on crowded bleachers. A bright fluorescent light flickered above them, accentuating their creepiness. Apparently there were about 100 more of these dolls in storage. Linda did not know what was up with these dolls. But she couldn't really dwell on it, frankly.
- [08:19]
Linda Tessner
There were so many things that had to be done at Mary Hill. Absolutely everything was in some sort of disrepair or dysfunction. Everything. I mean, from the bathrooms to signage.
- [08:34]
Narrator
So among the Rodin sculptures, the Romanian furniture, a large collection of indigenous art, and a display of chess sets, there were the dirty dolls piling up against the glass showcase in the hall, collecting dust, until one day when Linda got a call from a curator at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. She asked Linda if she could come to maryhill because she wanted to see these dolls. And that was when Linda learned what she had on her hands. These dolls weren't supposed to be so macabre, actually. They were kind of heroes in a way, because these dolls had saved French fashion. This is the end of German pride and power in Paris. It began with the fall of France. And now, amid the cheers of the people, the Nazi has fallen. After four devastating years of Nazi occupation, Paris was liberated on August 25, 1944. Feast of Liberation at the Paris Opera of long renown. And all through the city, the same sights and sounds. Ecstatic Parisians rejoiced in the streets. Some of them gathered up the ration tickets that had governed their lives and tore them into confetti. And this turned out to be a very bad idea. Because the war was not over, they'd still need those ration tickets. In the aftermath of the occupation, more than 5 million French adults and children didn't have adequate shelter or food. Parisians dressed in ratty, worn clothes walked and bicycled through their dark city. The capital of light, of art, of culture was a shell of itself, Liberated by its own people and by a French living. During the course of World War II, Paris lost its position as the epicenter of contemporary fine art that moved to New York City. The literary world also re centered around New York. But Paris was determined not to lose its soul, or at least not to lose everything to New York somehow. Even though they didn't have electricity, Paris had to remain a capital of beauty and ideas. It had to retain its title as the capital of fashion.
- [10:57]
Melissa Levinton
Look at it this France has been relying on the couture industry and all of the other industries. It involves the textile industry, the industry that makes all of the zippers, the buttons, the hooks, the feather workers, the embroiderers.
- [11:15]
Narrator
This is Melissa Levinton, an independent curator, fashion historian and appraiser that's been a.
- [11:19]
Melissa Levinton
Big part of not only France's economy, but France's national identity since the 17th century. They're not just going to let that go because of four year occupation by Germany. They were not going to let it die without a really tough fight.
- [11:36]
Narrator
Before the war, in 1939, the French fashion industry employed more than 900,000 people. It was the second largest industry in France. And then by the end of the occupation, Paris fashion houses were just gasping for breath. They had no customers and no materials at all. Everything had gone to the war effort. Shreds of leather and buttons were rare. Even spools of thread were few and far between. And this was really hard for France. I mean, the country has a department of its government devoted to regulating high fashion. It's called the Chambre Syndicale de l'. Occatur. And even in that post occupation scarcity, the Chambre Syndicale de l' Occatur wanted to send a message to the world.
- [12:24]
Melissa Levinton
We are still here. We were not destroyed by the war and we kept our skills. And we might not have much in the way of materials, but we're just going to figure it out. We survived, and we want you to know that we survived. But in order to keep going, we need our customers back.
- [12:43]
Narrator
And the Chambre Syndical came up with an idea. They would gather all the famous French fashion designers together to do a joint fall collection. They would use real fur, real leather, real silk. No compromises. Well, except that everything would have to be in miniature. That way they could scrape together just enough to make tiny outfits, tiny shoes, little purses and gloves and belts and still use real materials. So they revived an old, old French practice, fashion dolls.
- [13:19]
Melissa Levinton
So let's talk about fashion dolls. The way dressmakers and women who were called milliners, marchand des modes, kind of like fashion stylists of today, they sent around dolls dressed in the latest fashion.
- [13:34]
Narrator
Dolls were in effect, the first catalogs. Clothiers were sending out dolls to wealthy families in royal circles way before the first fashion magazine came out in the late 1700s. So the chambers and Dekal decided to use dolls again. They reached out to fashion houses like Balenciaga and Nina Ricci and Hermes. And they each volunteered to create an outfit or two. The project was organized as a fundraiser for war refugees and victims. But it was also an advertising campaign marketing the concept of French chic. The collection of 228 fashion dolls would be called the Theatre de la Mode, the Theater of Fashion. And they would be sent to the major cities across Europe and eventually America. And each showing would announce to the world that the couture houses in France were still in business, that Paris was still the capital of glamour and luxury, even though the city barely had power. And. Okay, so I keep calling them dolls, but I'm wrong. They are not technically dolls.
- [14:42]
Brielle Pozzalla
We have doll enthusiasts who are like, we want to see the dolls. You can see the mannequins.
- [14:47]
Narrator
This is collections manager Anna Goodwin showing me some of the Tiatre de la Mode mannequins.
- [14:53]
Brielle Pozzalla
We definitely, at least I definitely cringe anytime someone calls them dolls.
- [14:59]
Narrator
These mannequins were sculpted by the artist Eliane Bonabelle, and they are works of art in and of themselves. They were intentionally made with wire limbs and those blank plaster faces so that they would have no personality of their own.
- [15:13]
Brielle Pozzalla
Absolutely. That was their goal, was to create a mannequin that just disappeared.
- [15:18]
Narrator
They look like sketchbook drawings brought to life. The wire limbs look like 3D brush marks. The focus is obviously supposed to be on the impeccable clothes. Like this dress Anna showed me in storage.
- [15:31]
Brielle Pozzalla
It sort of has a bodice with buttons and a collar, and then it comes down to the waist where there's a belt, which you can see is actually a functional belt.
- [15:44]
Linda Tessner
It's like a teeny, tiny belt.
- [15:46]
Brielle Pozzalla
It's about the buckle is about half an inch by quarter inch.
- [15:51]
Narrator
These are not doll clothes. There's no Velcro, no fake snap on attachments. These are real outfits with little clasps and Right. Proper lining. I mean, they look like Runway or red carpet looks put into a shrinking machine. It kind of feels like when you look at a freshly born baby and you're like, oh, my God, the little fingernails, like everything is there, all in proportion, but so careful. And tiny, tiny little buttons there. Oh, my God, those tiny buttons on the sleeves. Let me tell you, these fashions from 1945 and 46 are not what you're imagining. Like, when I think 1940s fashion, I think broad shoulders, pencil skirts, muted colors, practical low heeled wartime attire. No, these are richly colored full skirted affairs with sumptuous overcoats and gowns intricately beaded with thousands of tiny sequins and hair resplendent with exotic bird feathers. There are tiny, radiant sundresses that hint at the 1950s to come and dramatic pleated trousers that I would wear now. And the shoes, do not get me started on the shoes. These are like white leather platform oxfords, I guess, with a tiny buckle. Oh, my God.
- [17:16]
Brielle Pozzalla
Just the stitching is minute.
- [17:24]
Narrator
The Teatro della Mode premiered in March of 1945 in the west wing of the Louvre. It was A massive success.
- [17:33]
Melissa Levinton
Supposedly, the installation in Paris raised something like a million French franc, which was a lot of money, given the total economic disaster that was France after World War II.
- [17:45]
Narrator
As the Teatre del Amade opened in March of 1945, Allied armies were pushing deeper into Germany, liberating French war prisoners. In April of 1945, France discovered the existential horror of the concentration camps. Bleakness was enveloping Europe, and the Theatre Della Mode was a tiny shred of. Of pleasure. The show was extended for weeks and weeks and weeks. This miniature beacon of Glamour attracted 100,000 visitors who paid what little money they had to witness this luxurious vision of what Paris still was in their imaginations and maybe could be again. The Louvre's exhibit of the Theatre Delame ended around the same time that the war did, in May of 1945. And so the teacher Della Mode went on to the next phase of its mission. The show, rebranded in English as a fantasy of fashion, was packed up and shipped to London, then Leeds, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Vienna, all to rave reviews. And then the little mannequins went to show off to the old rival, New York City to more rapturous crowds. Goering did his best to strip the French style capital of its finest treasure, but there seems to be some things he missed. Certainly pretty snazzy. It looks like it was really worthwhile. Freeing Paris. In 1946, the Teatre della Mud made its final stop, the de Young Museum in San Francisco. And everyone agreed this would be the exhibit's final resting place. France didn't want the mannequins anymore.
- [19:40]
Melissa Levinton
They didn't need them back. So the de Young had not earmarked funds to return them. Like there was no spare cash in.
- [19:49]
Narrator
The system, the Teatre Della Mode was sent to a department store in downtown San Francisco that was named, confusingly, the City of Paris.
- [19:58]
Melissa Levinton
I remember talking to a woman who used to work at the city of Paris saying she remembered seeing them in the basement.
- [20:04]
Narrator
And the mannequins just stayed in the basement of the City of Paris department store for years until they were found by a wealthy San Franciscan named Alma de Bretteville spreckels. In 1952, she shipped them off to her pet project, a museum in rural Washington State. They were sent without any accompanying documents or explanation as to their origin. Perhaps, Alma thought these mannequins needed no introduction, that everyone would, of course, remember this worldwide sensation, even though, of course, they didn't.
- [20:40]
Melissa Levinton
In a lot of ways, it seems to be the fate of this exhibition to get forgotten about from time to.
- [20:49]
Steven Graff
Time.
- [20:55]
Narrator
France pretty much forgot about the Theatre de la Mode, too. The mannequins were generally assumed to be lost or destroyed, but as you know, they weren't. The Teatre Della Mode was perched on a mountaintop overlooking the Columbia River Gorge with Linda.
- [21:10]
Linda Tessner
Really soon after I started at Mary Hill, I got this call from a woman named Anna Bennett, who was the textile and costume curator in San Francisco. And she wanted to know if she could drive out to Mary Hill Museum and take a look at the Tate Della Mode. It was like somebody walked into the museum and provided information that had been missing for a very long time.
- [21:30]
Narrator
When this curator rediscovered the mannequins in the 80s, word traveled around academic fashion circles. A slow trickle of curators and professors and editors made pilgrimages to Maryhill, each one adding a little more to the pool of knowledge. But then finally, the news got to Susan Train, the Paris bureau chief for Conde Nast.
- [21:54]
Linda Tessner
She was a woman that wielded a lot of power. She was very interested in fashion. She'd been in the fashion industry for her entire life. At the time I met her, she must have been in her 50s, late 50s maybe.
- [22:06]
Narrator
Of course, Susan Train knew all about the Theatre de Lamade, and she knew its importance.
- [22:11]
Linda Tessner
And she couldn't believe that. It was like there was this time capsule, there was this collection sitting in where, like Goldendale, Washington.
- [22:18]
Steven Graff
What?
- [22:18]
Narrator
Susan flew from Paris to the Pacific Northwest to see the mannequins. And was she wearing heels when she touched down at the Portland airport? Yeah, she always wore heels and always wore pearls with her blonde hair chopped in a chic bob. Oh, and she always carried a purebred, long haired American kennel Club dachshund with her. Linda remembers she had one named Nephofia, which is a flower. I had to look it up.
- [22:44]
Linda Tessner
She was very intimidating because she was a very tall, thin, elegant, very elegant woman.
- [22:51]
Narrator
Linda tried to roll out the red carpet as best she could. She took Susan to the only place you could eat out for dinner, which was a truck stop across the river called Jack's Fine Foods.
- [23:00]
Linda Tessner
This was a woman that. I mean, I'm sure that a French fry rarely crossed her lips, but.
- [23:05]
Narrator
And when Linda took Susan to the Mary Hill Museum to see the Theatre Della Mode, Susan adored it. She could see past the grime and the mismatched outfits and recognize what it once had been.
- [23:18]
Linda Tessner
And she looked at the Theatre Della Mode and she fell in love. It was kind of love at first sight.
- [23:23]
Narrator
And there was another love blossoming between Linda and Susan. Not in a romantic way.
- [23:30]
Linda Tessner
Maybe it was a. An older sister, younger sister relationship.
- [23:34]
Narrator
Listen, you can hear it in Linda's voice.
- [23:37]
Linda Tessner
She wore these big earrings that were cut glass but was like a big chunk of rock on her ear. And they were, they were so shockingly beautiful to me. I'd really never seen anything like that. I remember once at lunchtime, I was saying, oh, Susan, I really. Those earrings, I just love them. And she immediately popped them off her ears and handed it to me and said, I want you to have them. She was generous like that. She was extremely generous.
- [24:02]
Narrator
I mean, how could you not be completely taken with this glamorous person? It's the same thing that drew 100,000 starving French people to stare at the Theatre de la Mode. Glamour and luxury are powerful. Susan knew she had to bring these mannequins back to Paris to revive the Theatre de la Mode back to its former glory.
- [24:24]
Linda Tessner
She went back to Paris and got busy.
- [24:27]
Narrator
Susan did her Paris Conde Nast bureau chief thing and pulled together to refurbish the Teatre della Mode.
- [24:33]
Linda Tessner
There were moth holes and the mannequins themselves, some of them had to be re soldered and some things had to be recreated. And then maybe the most vexing thing was that well meaning volunteers over the years had changed all the clothes. So they were in no way were they in their original ensembles.
- [24:52]
Narrator
This was a team effort from a crew of set designers, clothiers and historians. Experts and artists referenced the black and white photographs from the original show and talked with the fashion houses to make sure the outfits were perfectly restored. Leather was polished, silk was dry cleaned, diamond jewelry was reconstructed, real hair replaced and combed, and once again, the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture was footing the bill. The cool thing was that many of the original artists and designers who worked on the project in the 40s were still still alive to oversee the revival in the 80s. This labor of love they all thought they had lost. And if the mannequins were going to Paris, Linda had to go with them. She had to ensure they were safe because they were still in the Mary Hill collection. But also, there were many parties and celebrations to attend.
- [25:44]
Linda Tessner
Well, I remember I had bought outfits for all of these events that were taking place in Paris. And I thought I knew what I was doing. But the minute I got to Paris, the minute I got to Paris, Susan wanted to like, what did you bring? So I took all of the clothes that I had brought from home to her apartment one Saturday and she was like, no, no, no.
- [26:06]
Narrator
There was Nothing wrong with Linda's look, but Susan was just on a whole other level.
- [26:10]
Linda Tessner
I ended up because she just so disapproved of what I had brought from Oregon. I ended up wearing a lot of her clothes to these events. I think it was important to her that I looked a certain way and I certainly did not want to disappoint her.
- [26:25]
Narrator
For the next two years, as the mannequins were being fixed up, Linda went back and forth from Paris to Goldendale, from champagne toasts to rattlesnakes and back again. Little by little, she was becoming more glamorous under the tutelage of Susan train.
- [26:43]
Linda Tessner
Whenever I came to Paris, Susan always made sure there were flowers in my hotel room when I arrived. The most astonishing bouquets, like a profusion of pink lilies. She arranged for me to have my hair done. She arranged for me to have my makeup done. She arranged for me to have a pearl choker made.
- [26:59]
Narrator
Made, made.
- [27:00]
Linda Tessner
She actually marched me like she just put me in the car with her driver and she would come along with her little dog. And there was a jewelry store. I just. I know just where I need to take you for a pearl joker.
- [27:11]
Narrator
It was a real classic makeover montage.
- [27:13]
Linda Tessner
I actually have a scrapbook I could pull out and show you.
- [27:16]
Melissa Levinton
Could you?
- [27:17]
Linda Tessner
Yeah.
- [27:18]
Narrator
Linda has kept nearly every party invitation, every dinner menu, and in her scrapbook there are lots and lots of photos. And Linda looks like a supermodel. She's tall and thin with blonde bobbed hair and her three strand pearl choker always with a drink in hand, flushed with laughter. The Teatre Della Mode was reopened in Paris in May of 1990 at the Musee d' Arte de la Mode. It was a smash success. There were parties and photo shoots and press interviews, and it was like Linda had gone through the looking glass. She was living the very fantasy that the Theatre de la Mode represented. Case in point, back in Washington State, Linda had cut out an article from Vogue about the up and coming dress designer Herve Lajay. And in Paris, Susan brought Lynda to Herve Leger's studio to get a dress fitted for her. It's simple, black and white with a drop waist. In her blonde bob and Herve Leger dress, Linda looked like a 90s flapper. It was like a fairy tale. Especially because this Herve Leger dress was for an actual ball. After France, the Theatre de la Mode was exhibited at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it was on display during the Met Gala that year. And the Met Gala is just the fashion party in 1990, Linda received an invitation.
- [28:55]
Linda Tessner
I was kind of bedazzled with the opportunity of going to this incredibly glamorous dinner party at the Met. Like, who would ever think that was going to happen when I moved to Mary hill Museum in 1983?
- [29:08]
Narrator
And I can't help but notice, as the pictures in her scrapbook progress, Linda starts to look more and more like Susan.
- [29:17]
Linda Tessner
Somebody once laughed like, oh, Linda, you're Susan's little mannequin. Like, she's dressing you. She had opinions about how I looked. She did. In Eliza Doolittle way, like, I can teach you how to be chic.
- [29:31]
Narrator
Susan wanted to teach, and Linda wanted to learn. They were getting closer.
- [29:37]
Linda Tessner
We did love each other. We really did. We did love each other. We were very, very good friends.
- [29:42]
Narrator
But Linda started imitating Susan in other ways, too. Less healthy ones, I'm sure.
- [29:48]
Linda Tessner
She was naturally thin, so staying in that body that. That I had in Paris and New York was really hard and took a lot of time.
- [29:57]
Narrator
Linda was eating less and, as she put it, exercising like a crazy person. And then you'd get back to Goldendale and you'd still be, like, running and dieting and.
- [30:07]
Linda Tessner
Yes, definitely. Really? Yeah. I didn't want to disappoint Susan.
- [30:14]
Narrator
I know exactly what Linda is talking about. I think a lot of people do. There were years in my life where I tried to starve myself. And definitely a big part of it was I wanted to fit into beautiful clothing. And when you are intentionally starving yourself, that is a task that takes over your whole brain. I didn't think about anything else.
- [30:39]
Linda Tessner
It's not sustainable, and it's not even very fun because you're constantly. You're thinking all the goddamn time about what you're going to eat or not eat. So your entire world, like, it kind of pains me to think of those years, like, not thinking about other things, but thinking about assiduously writing down every calorie in a little notebook.
- [30:58]
Narrator
In this condition, you feel like you're not human. Like, you can't eat meals and just enjoy life the way other people can. But I did it in pursuit of glamour, of something that ascends to a higher plane than normal life, something that's impossible.
- [31:15]
Linda Tessner
You can't stay this thin for that long. You can't. I mean, I couldn't. And it was. It created a real crisis of confidence.
- [31:25]
Narrator
Even Susan could see that Linda wasn't doing well.
- [31:28]
Linda Tessner
She was a little worried about me at how thin I had become. And I remember at one lunch, we were having lunch Together. And she insisted on getting a bowl of strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. And I remember her sitting there saying, linda, eat.
- [31:45]
Narrator
After New York, the Teatra Della Mode went to Tokyo, and so did Linda. But in the pictures in her scrapbook, all the glamour appears to be taking a toll on her. She actually gained a lot of weight in only a few months from all the stress and traveling. And she was spending a lot of money.
- [32:03]
Linda Tessner
Oh, I put myself into debt by chasing. Like having to have the Herve Leger, I don't regret. Was really exciting to wear that dress for one night at the Costume Institute gala. I would do it again, but it had major repercussions in my life that lasted for a long time.
- [32:22]
Narrator
Financial repercussions.
- [32:23]
Linda Tessner
Financial repercussions. Body dysmorphia.
- [32:28]
Narrator
Linda started to wonder exactly why she was doing all this.
- [32:32]
Linda Tessner
Like, how much did I want to be like Susan Train? I mean, Susan was in many ways a very lonely person.
- [32:38]
Narrator
I didn't want to depend on anyone for anything. Susan Train told a Vogue journalist in 2007. I never wanted to be identified with one clique. The profile adds that Susan Train knew every designer but kept a professional distance, and that she intentionally did not spend time with Americans. Linda, apparently, was an exception.
- [33:01]
Linda Tessner
Well, I learned that what appears to be very glamorous could be very lonely.
- [33:06]
Narrator
In watching Susan, Linda realized that she didn't want to be quite so addicted to her work or quite so lonely or quite so thin. And then the best possible thing happened. The show ended. The Teatro Della Mode went back to Mary Hill, and so did Linda, back to her little house on the cliff. But this whirlwind experience made Linda ready to move on. She went to live in New York for a spell and then eventually went back west. And she lives in Portland now, and she's spent much of her career working in museums and collections there. She can drive to the Mary Hill Museum of Art in two hours. And she does every so often to remember this beacon of hope for post war France and this evidence of a parallel life she once had, because the other witnesses to her story are mostly gone.
- [33:58]
Linda Tessner
My husband John, met Susan and we went to France for our honeymoon. We went to Paris, and it was so great to see Susan. We had meals together, and it was the last time I saw her.
- [34:08]
Narrator
Most of the artisans and experts and historians who were involved with the mannequins in both of their incarnations have passed away. In a lot of ways, this story has become Linda's.
- [34:19]
Linda Tessner
I'm kind of sick of people talking about like I, you know, I did this, or I had this, and it changed my life. It changed my life. Changing experience. This actually changed my life. It taught me lessons that I think about today.
- [34:35]
Narrator
After our weekend together, Linda sent me a quote that she had heard a long time ago which had stayed with her. It was attributed to Ben Brantley, the theater critic for the New York Times. Glamour is whatever you can't have, it is best perceived at a distance, either literally or emotionally. Knowledge kills glamour. This just seemed so utterly true to Linda. She experienced the shadow side of her jet set life with Susan. She knew about the suffering and deep trauma behind the tiny mannequins. And yet I personally don't know if knowledge kills glamour entirely, wounds it severely, for sure. But it's hard to completely destroy the illusion. The aspirational pull of fashion carves out a space in our imagination. It's why we dream of Paris, why we want to see Cardi B on the red carpet in vintage couture. Glamour involves so much delicate placement of smoke and mirrors for the the people who occupy that rarefied air. So much so that the pleasure in it is really ours. We, the viewing public, the audience. Linda knows this, and I think that's why she enjoys the show.
- [35:53]
Linda Tessner
I don't want to go anyplace else on the night of the Oscars. I want to be in front of my TV with absolute silence, and I just want to watch. But I don't want to be that. And I don't even want to be in that world. Not again. That once was enough.
- [36:13]
Narrator
From the vantage point of Linda's living room, the beautiful people on TV seem so small and innocuous, they almost look like little dolls.
- [36:27]
Interviewer/Host
Since this story came out, the Teatro della Mode would become, during the pandemic and the years that followed, somewhat revived, which I will tell you about after the break.
- [36:39]
Narrator
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- [39:14]
Interviewer/Host
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Narrator
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- [40:04]
Brielle Pozzalla
So your podcast about Teacher De la Mode was actually my first time hearing about Mary Hill. It became a symbol of what Mary Hill could be with job Hunting after graduating. And it has this anxiety induced grad student glimmer of hope.
- [40:20]
Interviewer/Host
I met Brielle when she was a grad student and now she works at the Mary Hill Museum of Art.
- [40:26]
Brielle Pozzalla
I'm Brielle Pozzalla. I am the collections manager at Mary Hill Museum of Art. I started this summer and I lucked out.
- [40:34]
Interviewer/Host
I mean, it's wild now. Brielle sort of has a version of the job that our protagonist Linda once had.
- [40:40]
Brielle Pozzalla
Honestly, the day to day is like monitoring and maintaining the galleries, ensuring that there's no unwanted six legged critter visitors. And it's smaller than other museums, but its impact is bigger than it feels.
- [40:55]
Linda Tessner
Like it should be.
- [40:56]
Brielle Pozzalla
This place, two hours drive from Portland.
- [40:59]
Narrator
Is actually like a treasure in many.
- [41:02]
Interviewer/Host
Ways because of the Teatre della Mode. I mean it's a gallery of a kind of clothing that really doesn't exist anymore.
- [41:10]
Brielle Pozzalla
It's really nice just seeing the different usages of the materials and just the variety. I'm learning about the permits we used to have for the export, import and re import of endangered and extinct species of feathers.
- [41:24]
Narrator
Wait, the feathers on the Teatro della Mode?
- [41:26]
Brielle Pozzalla
Yeah, especially in the hats. Like hummingbirds, birds of paradise.
- [41:31]
Interviewer/Host
And if you want to see all those hats and dresses and teeny tiny shoes, you have to go out to Mary Hill. Like you have to make that pilgrimage.
- [41:40]
Steven Graff
The people who are fans of the TDLM are the most hardcore of all of our visitors.
- [41:47]
Interviewer/Host
That is art curator at Mary Hill Museum of Art, Steven Graff.
- [41:51]
Steven Graff
I don't want to say people dance in place and scream, but there's a level of enthusiasm and sometimes you can.
- [41:59]
Brielle Pozzalla
Just see who came just for Tatra la Mode because they dress up and.
- [42:03]
Interviewer/Host
People get dressed up and trek out to this museum in the middle of the Columbia River Gorge. Because the Teatro della Mode isn't going to be touring around again anytime soon.
- [42:13]
Steven Graff
There's been a moratorium on traveling since 2015.
- [42:16]
Interviewer/Host
Those clothes are fragile.
- [42:18]
Steven Graff
They're like you would expect 80 year old garments to be. There's a little bit of fading on some fabrics and there's some tired wire mannequins.
- [42:29]
Interviewer/Host
So the mannequins rotate out of their display every couple of months to give the clothes and their curators a little break.
- [42:35]
Steven Graff
Every outfit that's on display has to come off, be condition reported and vacuumed. Pretty labor intensive. That's why they rest four out of every single six years and why they don't travel anymore.
- [42:47]
Interviewer/Host
But their reputation has traveled far beyond them, especially during the pandemic.
- [42:53]
Steven Graff
Because of the pandemic, there were no in person Runway shows. Business needed to proceed or limp along, I guess, as much as possible.
- [43:04]
Interviewer/Host
A number of fashion designers and brands proceeded to present their 2021 collections in miniature. The Belgian designer Walter van Beerendonk made glammed up looking fashion dolls that were almost like Barbies. Dior made little tiny dress forms, the kind without a head, and made fully intact couture gowns for them. Moschino used little marionettes. And they made this promotional video with their creative director, Jeremy Scott.
- [43:30]
Linda Tessner
I just love a puppet show.
- [43:32]
Narrator
This isn't a puppet show. This is a fashion show. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. Shh. The show is getting ready to start. Take your seat.
- [43:48]
Interviewer/Host
And all of these miniature collections were completely intricate and intact and complete as any full size clothing collection.
- [43:56]
Steven Graff
The oral history surrounding Tatre Delamote is that the individual outfits took as much time as a full size outfit. Within that tradition, those three fashion houses went back and created wonderful works of art in and of themselves.
- [44:12]
Narrator
Did any of them reach out to Mary Hill?
- [44:14]
Steven Graff
No.
- [44:15]
Interviewer/Host
Apparently Jeremy Scott of machina wanted to come by the museum, but that fell through.
- [44:19]
Steven Graff
I know we didn't follow up on.
- [44:20]
Narrator
It, but it's not like they're giving.
- [44:22]
Interviewer/Host
You any of the clothes.
- [44:24]
Steven Graff
No, and I'm embarrassed to say, I actually, before we had made the acquaintance of these folks, sent them a letter saying, hey, I have a great idea. Do you want to give us those clothes?
- [44:34]
Narrator
Yeah, I think it's a great idea.
- [44:36]
Steven Graff
And of course, it went nowhere, which is fine.
- [44:38]
Interviewer/Host
While the use of these miniatures in fashion houses might have brought in a few visitors, that wasn't where the real impact came.
- [44:44]
Steven Graff
Where the boost really, I think came was after the new look.
- [44:48]
Interviewer/Host
The new look, the show on apple TV about the house of Dior.
- [44:53]
Narrator
Creation, cannot stop the bullet, but creation is our way forward.
- [45:00]
Steven Graff
It's either episode three or it's episode four. But they're recreating the discussions behind what is the couture industry going to do to support relief? And they come up with this idea.
- [45:12]
Interviewer/Host
Which is taking a few creative liberties. Because when the teatra Delamode was created, Dior didn't have his own house yet. He was working for the designer Lucien Lelong. So maybe he worked on one of these mannequins, but we're not 100% sure. It's not in his name.
- [45:25]
Steven Graff
It got people here, but they came fairly uninformed. We had people wanting to see the Christian Dior mannequins wanting to see the Coco Chanel mannequins, of which there are none.
- [45:37]
Narrator
It makes sense why this was a pandemic thing. But do you think that this is going to, like, revive the practice of miniatures? Do you see a future for it?
- [45:45]
Steven Graff
Only anecdotally and only one instance. I know a native artist who is a fashion designer.
- [45:51]
Interviewer/Host
The designer, Orlando Dugai, spelled D U G A. I check him out, and.
- [45:56]
Steven Graff
He was here three years ago because he is interested in creating fashions in miniature. Because every, you know, he's making bespoke clothing, and it gets worn once on the Runway, and then it's a lot of effort.
- [46:13]
Narrator
Does Linda still stop by? Sometimes.
- [46:15]
Steven Graff
I haven't emailed her since last week.
- [46:19]
Narrator
Okay.
- [46:22]
Steven Graff
We hear from her from time to time. Yeah. So True Confession, the podcast you did with Linda about Tatre Delamode and Susan Tranol. That's the only podcast I've ever listened to in my life.
- [46:34]
Narrator
Oh, my God.
- [46:36]
Steven Graff
And that will provide, then, the context for what I'm going to say next. I'm old enough that my father's entire generation was World War II vets. My dad, my uncle, their cousins, they were all in the service during the war. And so this is a historical continuum that doesn't seem that far away to me, even though it's 80 years.
- [46:58]
Narrator
What do you think the connection? Because it's funny to look at Teatra della Mode as a vestige of war, which it obviously is, but there's not a lot that's particularly warlike about it. What do you think it says about conflict?
- [47:12]
Steven Graff
I think what it says is something really profound about humanity and the depths of both creativity and hope that are available to people. And I'm not saying that there isn't, of course, a lot of trauma written into the text, but it doesn't have to be solely trauma.
- [47:38]
Narrator
The pocket, A piece of paper. Words from yesterday.
- [47:53]
Brielle Pozzalla
There's a portrait painted on the things we love.
- [48:06]
Narrator
The pumpkin. The piece of paper and words for yesterday.
- [48:21]
Brielle Pozzalla
There's a portrait painted on the things we love.
- [48:31]
Interviewer/Host
This episode was made back when Articles of Interest was a part of the podcast 99% invisible. So it was edited by Chris Berube with insights and other edits from the rest of the staff, including Joe Rosenberg, Emmett Fitzgerald, Vivienne Ley Swan, Real Lasha Madan, Kurt Kohlstead, Delaney hall, and Katie Mingle. And especially, especially my podfather, Roman Mars. The music is by Ray Royal. It was fact checked by Tom Colligan. It was mixed by Sharif Youssef. And Catherine Raimondo. And this kick ass custom song is by Sasami for images of the Teatra della Mode and images of the other fashion houses that all relied on miniatures during the pandemic. Head to articlesofinterest.substat.com.
- [49:24]
Linda Tessner
Radiotopia.
- [49:27]
Narrator
From prx.