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Dressed: The History of Fashion
Ballerina: Fashion's Modern Muse, an interview with Patricia Mears (Dressed Classic)
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- [00:01]
April Callahan
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- [00:29]
Kassidy Zachary
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- [00:33]
April Callahan
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Kassidy Zachary
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- [00:44]
Patricia Mears
Enjoy this episode from the Dressed archive of over 500 plus shows. Dressed will be back with all new content in March of 2025. Until then, consider heading to DressedHistory.com to explore our latest online fashion history classes and in person tours of Paris and New York City. More from Dressed coming your way soon.
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Kassidy Zachary
With over 7 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day we all get dressed.
- [01:15]
Patricia Mears
Welcome to Dressed the History of Fashion, a podcast where we explore the who, what, when of why we wear. We are fashion historians and your hosts.
- [01:22]
Kassidy Zachary
Kassidy Zachary and April Callahan. Where do we even start this week's episode? Cass since the last time we recorded the show, things have changed just a bit in the world.
- [01:36]
Patricia Mears
Just a tad. As the saying goes, the podcast must go on. So instead of focusing on the current social disruptions, what we endeavor to do is to continue to remind everyone twice a week about the beauty of expression which clothing brings to our world.
- [01:54]
Kassidy Zachary
And today's episode cast is chock full of a wealth of beauty. Beauty hard won to be certain, but the transcendent kind that I think we could all use a healthy dose of right now. Today we are pleased to welcome one of our favorite fashion history scholars, Patricia Mears, to the show to chat with us about her exhibition, Fashion's Favorite Muse, which opened at the museum at FIT this past February.
- [02:20]
Patricia Mears
That's right. Patricia is the Deputy Director of the Museum at fit, and one of her special interests as a fashion historian is the intersection of dance and fashion. She's also written in detail about modern fashion's innovators in terms of construction techniques, and this includes the work of Madame Gray and the great Isabel Toledo, who passed oh too soon recently. We are thrilled to have Patricia with us today. Patricia, welcome to Dressed.
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Kassidy Zachary
Patricia. Thank you so much for taking the time today to join us on dressed. Welcome.
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April Callahan
Thank you so much, April. I'm really excited to be with you today.
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Kassidy Zachary
Congratulations on your new exhibition. It is truly magical. It's supremely beautiful, I have to say. And I learned a ton from its accompanying catalog, which is called Ballerina Fashion's Modern Muse. For any of our listeners who want to pop on over to Amazon and pick up a copy. So for any of our listeners who, like me, may not be ballet aficionados, I'm hoping first we can do a little bit of ballet history. Just a little bit. When do we first see the emergence of ballet and what distinguished it from other types of dance which preceded it?
- [03:31]
April Callahan
Ballet is quite an old art form. The genesis of what today. The basic steps and the positions were already in place as early as the 1660s. The first formal school was started in 1661 under the auspices of Louis XIV, who himself was a very accomplished ballet dancer. Oh, wow. It was clearly an aristocratic endeavor, and that carried over today this sort of erect posture, this sort of very frightening formal movement of the body. So in some ways it is part of that French ancien regime aspect, and we still see it today. But ballet's also a very athletic endeavor. So it's marrying these two extremes, if you will, restraint and this kind of technical bravura. And again, that's why I think they call ballet dancers artist athletes, because they merge the two and then fast forward. The ballet went from being aristocratic, very classical in its themes, and male dominated, to about the 1820s, 1830s, when women take over, ballet is international, it's much more standardized, and very importantly, the romantic style, the sort of supernatural narrative takes over. And it seems that women artists were better suited to express this new ballet form.
- [04:44]
Kassidy Zachary
What can you tell us about the life of a professional ballerina in the early years of the art form in the 19th century? What was her place in society?
- [04:53]
April Callahan
Very different from today. The ballerina really sat at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale, if you exceptions. And even though there was a flourishing in the 1830s and 40s, where there were certainly respectable stars, by and large, these women were very marginalized. They were paid very little, and as a result, they were often exploited. Many of them had to turn to prostitution to survive. And we see these beautiful pictures by Degas today showing what seems like an idealized environment, but in fact, often in the back, you'll see men lurking. They were known as the abonaise, the very powerful men of the Jockey Club. And they regularly exploited these young women. Many of them had very sad stories, even though they were quite accomplished artists.
- [05:37]
Kassidy Zachary
And speaking of Degas, I think there's even a little backstory to his very famous sculpture of the 14 year old dancer. Right?
- [05:45]
April Callahan
That's right. That famous bronze sculpture is of a young girl. She was part of a family where I think her sister was also a dancer. But sadly, she was likely a victim of the circumstances at the time where she hardly made any money to survive. Many of the dancers were hungry. Here they were physically exerting themselves. And this young lady did fall into prostitution as well and probably died a very sad life. Yeah, it's horrible to think of. And so different from the way we view dancers today.
- [06:12]
Kassidy Zachary
And it really is a fact that the majority of ballerinas then and now will never make it to star status.
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April Callahan
That's right.
- [06:19]
Kassidy Zachary
Or prima ballerina, which was a term that was more favored in the past. Today's top dancers are really generally called principal dancers. If I'm correct, why this shift in terminology from ballerina to principal dancer?
- [06:32]
April Callahan
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that ballet culture came up in Great Britain and especially the United States. And we view ourselves as a bit more democratic. So the idea of the ballerina, which was a term given to very few female dancers, you really had to be at the apex. At one point in the late 19th century in Russia, it is said there were only six ballerinas in all of Russia.
- [06:53]
Kassidy Zachary
Oh, wow.
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April Callahan
Which is extraordinary. So you can see how limited the term was bandied about then. But today we view the hierarchy of the principal, the soloist and the corps de ballet member. But I think it's erases the difference between male versus female. And one that really, I think asserts a sense of achieving it, not so much through social connections or through whims, but really through technical as well as artistic merit. So this is one of the reasons we see that change in France. They still use the word etoile or star to designate the very top rank.
- [07:25]
Kassidy Zachary
Oh, nice.
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April Callahan
Yeah, interesting.
- [07:27]
Kassidy Zachary
I'd like to turn our attention to one of the all time greats who we were just talking about before we started recording, Marie Taglioni. And she really rose to international acclaim in the early 19th century. I'm hoping you could tell us a little bit about her and also her innovations which helped to shape the future trajectory of ballet as an art form.
- [07:48]
April Callahan
That's right. I think Marie Taglioni was important in two very significant ways. One was the art form itself. She was not considered a beautiful woman and had certain physical flaws. Someone told me that she was slightly hunchback and her father who was a brilliant choreographer, was able to create dance movements that did not distract from that, in fact, really enhanced her physicalness. She was very hardworking, and she was a pioneer of the idea of going up on pointe, sort of idea of. Now, we think of it as absolutely essential in classical ballet for a female dancer. But it was very rare when she started. And I think the other thing that she did was to raise the respectability of the ballerina. She was very careful in the way she costumed herself. She was discreet. She always wore pearls. She had a floral diadem. And the other thing is that she acted very ladylike off stage. She made sure her physical depictions, whether in costume or in high fashion, were always done in a very respectful way. So she was able to do something many other ballerinas could not do, which was garner a female audience. Even the young Princess Victoria was a huge fan of hers. And so if members of the royal family could embrace her, it was considered acceptable. So she was a breakaway star, but unusual in that way.
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Kassidy Zachary
And correct me if I'm wrong, the queen perhaps named one of her horses.
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April Callahan
She did. Taglioni was one of her racehorses. And also there was a stagecoach that ran between cities that was called the Taglioni fabrics after her famous role, La Sylphide. Many different types candies were named after her, and the Russians were especially enamored. There were some balletto mens who made a soup out of her shoes and ate it. So Taglioni mania swept through Europe in the 1830s and 40s.
- [09:31]
Kassidy Zachary
Talk about being a mythic figure.
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April Callahan
Yes, exactly. That's right.
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Kassidy Zachary
Speaking of iconic elements of ballet, I would be very surprised if there's a single one of our listeners out there who is not familiar with the garment, which is, of course, quintessentially synonymous with ballet. And I am, of course, talking about the tutu. One thing that I was taken a bit back by when I was reading the exhibition catalog was the somewhat b origins of this term. So how did this term, tutu, come about? And at its most basic, what is a tutu?
- [10:05]
April Callahan
A tutu is just the ballerina skirt. It's her costume. And when it was, if you will, invented in the 1830s, it was a word that came from a rather, if you will, coarse background. It's of slang or play on the word cuckoo, which itself is slang for le petit col, which is you're behind, basically. Ballet audiences were different in the way they were positioned back in those days. The people who were members of the aristocracy or had money were always in what they called the box seats or the rings that were on the upper tiers of the opera house. And it. It was down in the orchestra seats where the more working class people sat. And they could sometimes get a glimpse up the ballerina skirt. Yes, they were diaphanous garments. And so sometimes, depending on how she twirled or whatnot, you could get a look up them. And they were also a bit dangerous. They were often starched and had sizing in them which made them flammable. And with the open gas lights, some of the ballerina skirts caught on fire. And sadly, a number of stars did die that way.
- [11:04]
Kassidy Zachary
Yeah, we talked about this. We talked to Allison Matthews, David, about her book Fashion Victims, and we went into some of those stories just a little bit. It's very sad.
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April Callahan
It's very sad.
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Kassidy Zachary
Marie Levy is.
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April Callahan
Emma Livre was one of them. Emma Livre.
- [11:19]
Kassidy Zachary
Yeah, exactly. Another light bulb really went off for me in the context of Taglioni and her ballet costumes, because her stage costumes were very much a direct reflection of fashion of the era. And I had never made that connection before.
- [11:42]
April Callahan
Exactly. In fact, if you look at ballet costumes starting in the baroque era all the way through, you can almost date when the production was from. Because they so closely reflected high fashion. This exhibition is the opposite. We wanted to show how fashion for the first time was looking to classical ballet starting in the 1930s. But early on, the ballerina's costume was clearly a modified version of high fashion. And we have the advantage of the skirts going up in the 18, so you see a bit of the ankle. So the ballerina's tutu was not too far a departure, but it was certainly more filmy. It was made with tulle. And the reason for this, again, was the narrative, this sort of supernatural, romantic, gothic narrative. The ballerinas were often sylphs or spirits or willies. They were girls risen from the dead. So to evoke this look of a ghost or something supernatural, the sort of gauzy light skirt was a bit of a departure from high fashion.
- [12:37]
Kassidy Zachary
Interesting. Another thing, if that set off a light, I have to say it was the shoes that hit me like a ton of bricks. Of course, I'm very well familiar with those little 1830s delicate little slippers with the ribbons that women were wearing at that time. But this eventually morphed into what we think of as the ballet shoe.
- [12:58]
April Callahan
Absolutely. Dancers already had started to take the heels off of their shoes in the early 19th century. They were really wearing sandals, if you will, and flat shoes. But the high fashion Shoes, you noted, was very lightweight, usually satin, very pretty ribbons. And dancers like Taglioni just darned them or reinforced them to, again, quickly go up on point. They didn't stand there or turn the way they do today. And then over time, they've been strengthened. They're made with layers of paper and glue, and they're very strong. In fact, they sound like pieces of wood when you tap them against the floor.
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Kassidy Zachary
The mainstream fashion press at this time, and you touched on this very briefly, was rife with ballet references during the 19th century. How was the cachet of ballet used as a marketing tactic?
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April Callahan
I think both ballet and fashion benefited by the rise of lithography and the greater distribution of fashion magazines. Now more middle class people could access them. And the ballet image was so perfect because it really encapsulated the romantic ideal. Again, this sort of, if you will, mystical creature, she was somewhat otherworldly. And from what I had read from some dance historians, people would actually take these prints out of the magazines and put them on their walls. Oh, wow. And it was really during the 1830s and 40s. Now, that was the first half of the 19th century. By the second half, the ballerinas, if you will, cachet faded a bit. And you do not see ballet reference anywhere near as much as in the 1830s and 40s again.
- [14:30]
Kassidy Zachary
And perhaps that had something to do with the fact that Taglioni passed away in 1840s. And I think you noted in the book that the popularity waned, especially in Paris. But Par Paris was far from the only epicenter of ballet. Russia had its own thriving ballet community, and, correct me if I'm wrong, a little bit of its own style. And that was really typified by the next great star ballerina that I'd like to talk about in a Pavlova.
- [14:57]
April Callahan
That's right. One of the nice things about ballet is it was becoming already more internationalized and more standardized in the first half of the 19th century. And actually, we have to credit the Italians with moving ballet and making it more technically exciting. The Italians were very well trained. And in fact, the word ballerina that is adopted by the Russians clearly is an Italian word. So early stars like Virginia Zucchi, Pierina Legnani, those types of women came to Russia with outstanding technical skills, and it helped recalibrate what the Russians were doing themselves. So it lifted the technical process. But those women were what they called whalebone ballerinas. They were strong, they were sturdy, did wear corsets, but they did not have the sort of body type we think of today, Anna Pavlova comes along. She's a sickly child. It takes her a little while to get accepted into the Mariinsky, the great training school and company, and she completely redefines what a ballerina looks like. She comes to the west with others with the Ballets Russe, but then quickly forms her own company, travels the world. And because of so many images of her, that's the image we now think of as the ballerina. Slender, beautifully shaped legacy and highly arched feet, which again, were not popular back when she started ballet.
- [16:15]
Kassidy Zachary
Yeah, when I was reading about this, I was, oh, she was like the Kate Moss of the ballet world. All of a sudden you see a shift in that ideal ballet body.
- [16:24]
April Callahan
Good analogy. Yes.
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Kassidy Zachary
And she also became one of the first ballerinas to be recognized as a fashion icon within Western society.
- [16:33]
April Callahan
That's right.
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Kassidy Zachary
Would you tell us a little bit about her relationship with fashion and haute couture in particular?
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April Callahan
I think she turned to some of her older colleagues. One of the most important was Matilda Kishinska, who is somewhat forgotten here in the west, but she was the prima ballerina in Russia at that time. She's most famous now for having been the mistress of Tsar Nicholas before he became the czar. But she was a very wealthy, connected woman. She had a palatial home, and she wore not only beautiful fashion, she had an incredible jewelry collection. She often draped herself in Faberge jewelry, not only in her private life, but also on the stage. And people said she positively twinkled. Now, Pavlova never had a jewelry collection like that, but she understood the potency of fashion. And I think also learned this when she came to Paris. This was very important in self promotion. Again, hundreds of photographs of her in her most famous ballet roles were disseminated around the world, but also in the latest fashions. She wore Fortuny Liberty of London, and we theorize she may have been a patron of Paul Poiret or other couturiers of that level. In fact, your post war book had some imagery that I said, oh, I wonder if there's a connection that leads.
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Kassidy Zachary
Me into my next question for you, which is if her international renown kindled the flames of ballet fandom, then the debut of the Ballets Russes in Paris really poured gasoline on this whole dance scene, particularly in terms of the synergy between dance and fashion.
- [18:03]
April Callahan
That's right.
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Kassidy Zachary
And we could probably do an entire episode on just this one moment in time if we really wanted to, and maybe someday we will. But what influence did the aesthetic of the ballets Russe. This dance company have on Paris Couture. And who were some of the key players here?
- [18:21]
April Callahan
The one who is the most famous is Sergei Diaghilev, the great impresario. He was actually very interested in avant garde art. He was not particularly a dance fan, but he did go to the Mariinsky and see the Sleeping Beauty, and he was transformed. He realized what ballet could be at its highest. So he says, all right, I'm going to bring a troupe of the most brilliantly trained dancers. And they were the best dancers in the world at that time. But he also brought avant garde artists like Bakst, and he would later collaborate with Picasso, top choreographers like Michel Fokine and composers like Igor Stravinsky. And this, if you will, Gesamtkunstwerk, or total work of art idea, was done and absolutely revolutionized what ballet could be in Europe. The Parisians went crazy. And I think even though Paul Poiret denied the influence, it's very clear that they're modern and exotic ballets. They really did not do full classical productions in the beginning. Just caught their imagination. I think Diana Vreeland summed it up best when she said the Ballets Russes was the only real avant garde I had ever seen in my life.
- [19:24]
Kassidy Zachary
Oh, that's amazing.
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April Callahan
Yes. And that shows you the level of impact. And he only lived for 20 years. He died in 1929. And so in a certain way, Ballerina fashion's modern muse is built on the great impact that he made. The subsequent Ballets Russes companies that grew out of this and the people that he nurtured, fellow Russians as well as others. So the whole ballet culture grew out of what he had done and Anna Pavlova had done.
- [19:49]
Kassidy Zachary
When I first started working at Special Collections, I was delighted to see that we actually have several of the Ballets Russes programs from their U.S. tours in 1915 and 1916. And you know, in the exhibition catalog, that English ballet, you say, quote, was heavily indebted to the Ballets Russes and that their 1921 production of Sleeping Beauty, which you just referenced, was a runaway smash hit. Would it be fair to say that during the early 20th century, we start to see a little bit of shift in the epicenters globally where ballet is taking off?
- [20:23]
April Callahan
Absolutely. Not only because of the Ballet Russe coming to Paris in 1909, but because of the Russian Revolution. What Russia lost, the west gained so many of their top performers, and not just that, but the teachers, the people who were ballet writers and critics, as well as composers and Choreographers and artists and people who made costumes all emigrated to the West. And so out of this comes ballet culture, spearheaded by the British of all countries, and then later the United States. And I've always wondered, because Great Britain and America did not have a staff, ballet schools and companies on a national level, like France, Denmark, Russia, whether or not this was one of the reasons why they were so impassioned by this. But just two quick notes. Of course. Sleeping Beauty. It was a success by our standards. I think it ran 115 performances. But Diaghilev didn't make money, so he was actually run out of London. And keep in mind that the production happened in London, a city with great theater. Enthusiastic. So that's one of the reasons he did that. But it inspired actually one of the first ballets Friedrich Ashton did in 1926. He loved also the modern productions of the Ballets Russe, but his first ballet was called the Scarlet Scissors, or the Tragedy of Fashion. And he actually. He stars as Monsieur Duchy, who winds up committing suicide when his work is not well received. But there are all sorts of other ballet references. The editor in chief of British Vogue is actually a key figure in the ballet, as is Monsieur Coulthard. Samuel Coulthard, the textile manufacturer. He is the Vicomte de Rayonnais. Oh, my gosh. And even Charles James Sister is in that production. She was a ballet dancer. And he clearly was in part of the groups where the intellectuals and ballet fans all intermingled in London at the time.
- [22:06]
Kassidy Zachary
That's really amazing. Who doesn't love a little fashion satire?
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April Callahan
Absolutely.
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Kassidy Zachary
Whether it's in print or whether it's on the stage.
- [22:12]
April Callahan
That's right, exactly.
- [22:14]
Kassidy Zachary
With this shift and all of these artists entering life in the West, I'm going to guess that we saw the creation of some new dance companies. Could you give us a brief overview of some of the most influential companies that are starting to emerge at this time?
- [22:28]
April Callahan
That's right. One was the breaking away and creation of a number of splinter companies from the original Ballets Russe. You had the Ballets Russe de Monte Carlo, Colonel de Bazille's Ballet Russes, and then. And these splinter companies took that form of Russian ballet and those original productions all over the world. Now, the Ballets Russe already toured internationally, but this really was ingrained. The Ballets Russe de Monte Carlo was actually trapped in the United States during World War II. And so they were the ones who were taking it to cities and places in the country where people had never seen ballet, probably had never heard of it. But the two major companies that grew out of this, in fact maybe three, were based in London and New York. First is the Sadler Wells Ballet, which would eventually become the Royal Ballet. And in many ways, they were the, if you will, heirs to the traditions of Russian high classical ballet. Their version of Sleeping Beauty became internationally famous. And then in New York, thanks to George Balanchine and other emigres, we see the creation eventually of the New York City Ballet in 1949 and American Ballet Theatre, which again grew out of. Of this culture during World War II.
- [23:34]
Kassidy Zachary
I'd like to turn our discussion back to fashion and ballet costume, the symbiotic relationship between the two, because I think as we go on a little bit, it's gonna become abundantly clear that more than a few fashion designers have been ballet obsessed, one of whom may have been Jeanne Lavin. And I had never made this connection between one of her iconic signature looks, the robe de style, which may very well have been inspired by ballet costume.
- [24:02]
April Callahan
Ye interesting. Thanks to scholars like Lynn Garofola, who was professor emeritus of the dance program at Barnard College. She had actually done some research on John Maynard Keynes, the great economist. He was a huge ballet fan. And even though he was a homosexual, he married Lidia Lepokova, a Russian ballerina, and they apparently had a very nice marriage. But we see that the planting of the seeds of these ideas were started in Paris. And Lanvin, as you know, created gowns that were antithetical to the sleek garcon or fl. The very moderne body type. She had a rather romantic style. And so those 18th century inspired dresses were also nicknamed the Camargaux, after the great 18th century ballerina, Marie de Camargau.
- [24:48]
Kassidy Zachary
Oh, interesting.
- [24:49]
April Callahan
So we know for sure. And she was doing ballet costumes at the time. And I've always theorized that the Ballet Carnival, which was a hit with the Ballet Russes, I think it was a 1910 ballet, had wonderful sort of flowers, flouncy, 1830s style dresses with cherries printed on them. And we see that that was the figure Columbine, that Lanvin did a dress called Columbine, that also had these sort of circular discs and a bright red bow on the dress. And I've always wondered, could the connecture have been that direct? Yeah.
- [25:19]
Kassidy Zachary
And now that you're. Now that you mentioned that the Camargau, I think there is a plate in Gazette de Monte which is a dress by her and it's entitled. That's the title of the plate.
- [25:27]
April Callahan
Absolutely.
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Kassidy Zachary
Yeah. I think that we really can't talk about designers like Lanvin or others of her era, including Madeline Vionnet, without really speaking about the modernization of fashionable dress. And I'm curious if this shift towards comfort and practicality that we're seeing in fashion during the 1920s and the 1930s, does this also play out in a shift in dancers, costumes?
- [25:51]
April Callahan
We do see this. First of all, rehearsal clothing starts to become less cumbersome. It's interesting if you look at photographs of young dance students in Russia at the turn of the 20th century, they are wearing full skirts. And you certainly see them, for example, in Degas paintings, the dancers always wore a tutu by the 1920s, and certainly by the 1930s, they are just wearing leotards and tights. So the emancipation in the classroom and the rehearsal areas are certainly happening. And we're starting to see the very Genesis of Leotards. 1928, the ballet ode by the Ballets Russes is so revolutionary that the dancers were saying, we felt naked on stage. So we do see this push forward, where both are going hand in hand, I think.
- [26:33]
Kassidy Zachary
And earlier, in the context of Pavlova, we were discussing the shift in this fashionable body type for dancers. But the 1920s is also when we see this shift for this sleek, trim, elongated, feminine form extend beyond the realm of the ballerina and really into mainstream fashion. And this is plainly evidenced if you look at fashion magazines from the 1920s and the 1930s, where also, perhaps not by happenstance, we also see increasing references to ballet and professional ballerinas were now actually moonlighting as fashion models. How far have we come from the petite, the corps de ballet girls who were forced into prostitution because they had no other option to now all of a sudden see ballerina is really glorified in print as the feminine ideal. So I'm wondering if you have any thoughts on this kind of, like, narrative arc in terms of progress in the new modern woman.
- [27:34]
April Callahan
I think timing is so important. I think every point you've made, April, is so right. We see a huge shift suffragette movement technology is allowing for. Many fashion historians have done brilliant research in this area. I would say also that one thing to keep in mind is the rise of the female couturier and the American designer. They now, in both countries, are seeing the rise of women dominating. The big couture names are often women. Same thing here. And I'm wondering if also the demographic shift, because so many men died during World War I. There was a sort of void and a vacuum in many of these areas. The bearded couturier is now gone. And with the women coming in and modernists like and Chanel leading the pack in Paris, and then you have everybody. Claire McCardell is starting to become a designer, but also Elizabeth Hawes. Many progressive women are now looking at a more streamlined look. Not on fashion, but also the body. If you want to be able to play sports and do this, you can't run around in a corset. And that's generally the sort of idea. But ballet clearly mirrors this. And one of the major ballerinas aside from Pavlova is Filia Dubrowska, who was not only. Only long limbed and slender, she was very tall. And when she was asked to take over a role in Les Biches, one of the modern ballets of the mid-20s, she couldn't wear the costume because she was so much taller than the original ballerina for whom the role was created. And Diaghilev said, just go to Chanel, she'll make something up for you. I would love to be in that situation. But you're absolutely right. The body types change. And as a result, the ballerina is now within one generation, becomes a respected artist, and she is now an idealized beauty. And also they are very. So what better than to take the most beautiful ballerinas and use them as models? They also know how to move in front of a camera very naturally. So a number of them that I had talked to and had read about made that comment that fashion editors approached them and said, why don't you model for us? Yeah.
- [29:32]
Kassidy Zachary
I was not at all familiar with Sono Asato before I started this episode. And now I'm officially obsessed and smitten by her.
- [29:40]
April Callahan
She.
- [29:40]
Kassidy Zachary
She is breathtakingly beautiful and she has a really compelling story. Was actually one of the ballerinas most frequently seen in the pages of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Might you tell us a little bit about her?
- [29:52]
April Callahan
Yeah. This is an incredible story. She's Japanese American. Her father was interned during World War II, and she was actually denied a visa because of the anti Japanese sentiment. She was very young when she started in classical ballet, only 14. She becomes at that time the youngest member of the company, travels around, and she eventually transfers over to Broadway and becomes a huge star. But as you noted, she was exceptionally beautiful and was the most popular among the most popular ballerinas featured as models during the late 30s and all during World War II. I was so struck by that. So I asked a number of people and they said, Patricia, you don't understand how beautiful she was. She was beautiful in A photograph. She was even more beautiful in real life. And one of my great privileges has been getting to speak to some of the dancers. And I did talk to her in the summer of 2017, when she was 98 years old, about a year before she died. And she confirmed, she said, yeah, they would approach us and we would do it for free just to have our name printed in the magazine. But I did ask her also, I said, so many of the poses you have are so natural, it looks like you're doing it yourself. And she said, yeah, they were not directed by the photographer. Which, again, gave me insight into this relationship between fashion dance and the ballerina herself.
- [31:04]
Kassidy Zachary
Yeah. And while we're on this topic, I'd like to touch briefly on the subject of racial diversity in ballet. Fontaine. Margot Fontaine was part Brazilian. Maria Tallchief was Native American on her father's side. And you actually say in the catalog, I'm quoting you, you say, though ballet was overwhelmingly populated by Europeans, it was just progressive enough to include those of different backgrounds. By comparison, fashion publications did not feature non white models until the 1960s. So Sono may have been the exception to this rule here. But broadly speaking, what was the state of race relations within ballet during the early to mid 20th century?
- [31:45]
April Callahan
I think we have Russia to credit for a little bit of this. Now, remember, Russia's an enormous country. It's 11 time zones, and they have so many different races under their larger empire. And then what became the Soviet Union during the Soviet era, they had to take at least two students from every one of the separate Soviet states into the major dance schools.
- [32:06]
Kassidy Zachary
Interesting.
- [32:07]
April Callahan
So people like Rudolf Nureyev, who is a Muslim Tartar, is an example of the kind of diversity that you would see. Different racial groups, different religious groups. But again, aside from African Americans, who really suffered terribly under the restrictions and limitations of ballet training, we saw the rise not only of Maria Tallchief, but of what they called the Five Moons, the five American Indian ballerinas that rose to international prominence during the mid century. And they were all from Oklahoma, amazingly enough, even though they all didn't train there. And also Latina ballerinas, Alicia Alonso and Lupe Serrano. And what's interesting is that Sona Usato and another dancer, Nini Tilad, were both Eurasian dancers who modeled. So I think, though the fashion magazines allowed them in because they were dancers, not especially models. You didn't see professional Asian models really at that time. But I think it did not dispel the kind of racism that early African American women and men had to deal with. They had their own ballet like the Negro Ballet was formed. But people like Raven Wilkinson and Janet Collins who eventually became the prima ballerina of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. Many of these dancers had very curtailed careers or had to go to Europe. It really wasn't until the Dance Theater of Harlem where you see the establishment of a company that is here and became world recognized and could really give dancers long and really profound careers in ballet.
- [33:28]
Kassidy Zachary
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- [35:42]
Kassidy Zachary
So I'd like To bring us back to this intersection of ballet and fashion and discuss a few interesting crossovers. Because our listeners may recall from our recent fashion and film series, we did a two parter on that. We did discuss Gilbert Adrian, of course, who started out in Hollywood as a costume designer under the studio system and then later launched his own fashion line, Adrienne Originals. Patricia, who was Barbara Karinska. And I'm certain you know where I'm going with this Adrienne reference.
- [36:13]
April Callahan
Yes, the very best of them. Barbara Karinska was a Ukrainian born costumier and couturier, very much like a Gilbert Adrian or Bernard Newman, some of these other major Hollywood individuals who also became very celebrated fashion designers. Karinska was an amazing figure because she initially, when she came to the west, worked with Cecil Beaton and Christian Berard. She didn't really design the costumes, but she made them. But I think she was starting to put her own little innovations in there, like bias cut satin, really heavy, like duchesse satin, which I had never heard of. We know that obviously Vionnet pioneered the idea of using things like crepes and stuff, but to do it with heavy material, I hadn't heard. And she did this to give the dancers greater flexibility in their torsos. But I also wondered if she was the one who pioneered the idea of different colors and layers of tulle to give greater dimension to the tutu. Because we see many other couturiers picking up this idea.
- [37:06]
Kassidy Zachary
Charles James.
- [37:07]
April Callahan
Absolutely. She does this after she does the costumes for Cotillon, the beautiful ballet that balanchine creates in 1932. But Karinska then goes on to come to the United States and she actually opens her own couture house for a while, but eventually goes back into creating costumes. And most celebrated amongst them are the ones she with George Balanchine at the New York City Ballet. In fact, the first things you see when you come into the exhibition are her Sugar Plum Fairy costume as well as the three magnificent jewels costumes that she did for his 1967 masterpiece, where you see emeralds, diamonds and rubies. And this idea of combining not just costume and fashion, but even jewelry to this degree. She had a very particular talent, aesthetic talent, as well as technical talent.
- [37:55]
Kassidy Zachary
And we just touched on Charles James very briefly. But he was not the only fashion designer who was looking to the ballet for inspiration. Also Coco Chanel, who was really good friends with Christian Berard or bei bei, we see some direct influences of some of his designs and her work as well.
- [38:13]
April Callahan
Exactly. She was also a supporter of the ballets Russes she was friends with Sergei Diaghilev and underwrote or helped support them financially. But certainly, certainly, Berard, I've always theorized, did a lot to help recalibrate Chanel's look. She, like many couturiers, embraced the romantic movement early mid-1930s. And she went from making, of course, very sleek, functional clothes in the 20s to doing these highly romantic tulle ball gowns. And next to the wonderful Cotillon costumes, covered with stars, we found a piece of hers done in the 30s, blue tulle, again, covered with stars, and very romantic. And I've always wondered whether or not there was this connection, whether direct or indirect, something planted subliminally in her.
- [38:55]
Kassidy Zachary
Yeah. And not only Chanel. The exhibition features a ton of designers who were, again, drawing their inspiration from the ballet stage. Balmain in particular.
- [39:06]
April Callahan
Yes.
- [39:07]
Kassidy Zachary
Do you have any favorite pieces in the exhibition that you would like to talk about?
- [39:10]
April Callahan
I think Balmain is so important. It's interesting, April, that in the several books about him, almost nothing about the ballet is mentioned. But we know he was doing costumes for fancy dress balls, and we know that he did some for ballet productions. It's still a little unclear, but I found his clothes to be the most theatrical and balletic, inspired, covered with feathers, really obvious things like this pink satin one that has a corset on it, and even ones where you have knit sweaters with chiffon skirts that are referencing the more informal ballet costume. But I think the big one was also Dior. He was looking at the Black Swan. Clearly, he made at least two versions of that particular costume. And he dressed many of the great ballerinas that seemed to be the favorite amongst them. And, of course, American designers a little later on, and even Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Cardin, who were greatly inspired by ballet.
- [39:59]
Kassidy Zachary
And that kind of leads into. You said that he dressed many of the great ballerinas all of a sudden this. Not really all of a sudden. It took a while, but this elevated status of the ballerina and her increasing celebrity status was not lost on fashion purveyors. And many of them really looked to capitalize on dressing them for international tours as a marketing tactic for their own work. Would you tell us a little bit about this?
- [40:24]
April Callahan
Yes. It was a transatlantic phenomenon. When the British first brought the Sadler Wells Ballet to New York in 1949, it was a huge hit. And Margot Fontaine was their star. She got 48 curtain calls, unheard of today.
- [40:37]
Kassidy Zachary
Wow.
- [40:38]
April Callahan
When she danced the lead role, Princess Aurora, in the Sleeping Beauty. Now, the British textile and clothing industry Said, you know what? We know this is going to be successful. Let's take Fonteyn and a few of the other female leads, like Moira Shearer, Pamela May, some of the other ballerinas, and dress them. So the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers, I guess their version of the cfda, decided to dress the ballerinas and did so beautifully. So their traveling costumes, their evening clothes were all done and publicized everywhere. In fact, Cecil Beaton photographed Fontaine for Vogue magazine in one of the pieces. But I think the big thing is that these ballerinas love Dior and Fontaine, although she was the epitome of British dancing, restrained style, she was a national hero. She loved Paris and loved couture. And thanks to Roland Petit, she was introduced to Dior very early on. And because she was so slender, she could actually wear the samples.
- [41:32]
Kassidy Zachary
Oh, nice.
- [41:32]
April Callahan
So we know that perhaps the first Dior she ever bought from his first collection is in the exhibition and then subsequent pieces that she Wore in the 50s. But I think her story is especially telling because although many dancers, like the great Morishira, wears Jacques Fath couture gowns in the Red Shoes movie, which was an international hit, Fonteyn carried this over. She thought she was going to retire in the late 50s. She said, 1959, I'm going to turn 40. Probably time to hang up my point. But then soon thereafter, within about a year and a half, Rudolf Nureyev defects, and Ninette de Valois, who's the director of the Royal Ballet, says, no, you will be dancing with Nureyev. She was very nervous. Here she is in her 40s, he's in his mid-20s. She said, this is going to look a little ridiculous, but they turn out to be the great dance partnership of all time. And something happens to her. Stylistically, she embraces a very youthful look. Dior has passed away, and she turns to his heir, Yves Saint Laurent, and he dresses her throughout the 1960s, and in 1965, she actually becomes a member of the best dressed list. Fonteyn understood probably more than any ballerina of the mid century, how important your offstage Persona is. And Nureyev likewise dressed in a highly fashionable way. A little flamboyant, but you knew you were looking at a star, whether he was walking down the street or anywhere.
- [42:53]
Kassidy Zachary
I think I remember a couple images of him wearing Pierre Herdin.
- [42:56]
April Callahan
Absolutely.
- [42:57]
Kassidy Zachary
From that era. And of course, we're talking about the mid century period here. This is also the same time when American fashion was really coming into its own. And I'm not going to dwell on the how and why about this because we have talked about it so many different times on the show. I'm sure our regular listeners are very well familiar with this tale now, but I'd like to talk about this particular moment where there begins to be the rise of the American ready to wear and the influence of dancewear on American designers, many of whom were women. What about dancewear was appealing to these designers and also the buying public alike?
- [43:36]
April Callahan
I think obviously, During World War II, we were cut off from Paris, so this sort of high fashion is no longer available. And I think during the war ii, with shortages and many women working outside of the, you needed more functional clothing. This has already been part of the American DNA, and we had a very large ready to wear industry. We were pioneers in this area. But I think dance helped informed in a couple of ways. First of all, this is the era when the flat ballet slipper is born. Diana Vrila pioneers the idea already in 1941, says, you don't need to buy shoes. Wear a ballet slipper and put some ribbons on it. And in 1942, according to what I've read, Claire McCardell can't get regular shoes. So she goes to Capezio, which. Which is a celebrated ballet shoemaker. There are no wartime restrictions on ballet shoes, so she grabs a bunch and puts them on her dresses. And it led to an eventual collaboration between the two, and Capezio takes off. They actually go into the ready to wear street shoe manufacturing arena. They win the Cody Award, they're on the COVID of Vogue. So this whole genesis with flat functional footwear started then. But the leotard also comes in. And amongst many designers, Mildred Oreck was a pioneer, also one of this cadre of American women, and she was asked to illustrate leotards in 1943 for a spread in Harper's Bazaar magazine. Because they said, look, the leotard is your friend. You may not know what it is, but you'll want it in your wardrobe. You can look futuristic, like Flash Gordon, but it also gives you a reference to the ballerina's rehearsal clothing. They make specific reference to ballerina. So leotard's tights can be used as a base layer under which you can put wrap skirts or a wrap dress or a popover dress, something like that. So it was so new, though. I think the editors felt the need to explain what a leotard was. So swimwear, activewear, it's all you see, this fluid connection between everything at that.
- [45:24]
Kassidy Zachary
Time, and also a lot of knitwear. In these ready to wear fashions of this exact same era. So in the 1960s and the 1970s, we see a little bit of a transition in terms of ballet stage costume, sometimes away from the more formal styles. And we start to see leotards only being worn on stage increasingly. And this is also the same time when we see the leotard become even more co opted by high fashion. Do you think this is a coincidence?
- [45:56]
April Callahan
No, I don't think so. Balanchine really was a pioneer. He started to produce ballets in leotards. In the beginning, it was sometimes because he didn't have the money to buy nicer costumes, but eventually he realized because his choreography was faster, it really accentuated the dancer's line. It was better to wear them in leotards. So both the men and the women were wearing them. And they were called black and white ballets because of the black leotards and pink or light tights as well as leotard ballets. So that's not a coincidence. And then technology, which you have always talked about, the new materials like lycra and stretch materials, allowed leotards to be made more readily and easily. And so we suddenly see an explosion during the 1960s and 70s. Danskin, which was exclusively for dancewear, suddenly becomes clothes made to transition from the ballet studio to the street to the disco. So you're going back and forth between different dance forms.
- [46:50]
Kassidy Zachary
And they even had an advertising campaign that was like Danskin, not just for dancing.
- [46:54]
April Callahan
That's right, that was. Was very clever. And their designer, Bonnie August, who's been forgotten, actually won a Cody Award also for her innovations. And a dancer, a young soloist with American Ballet Theatre, was actually one of her advisors. So she turned to classical ballet for that.
- [47:09]
Kassidy Zachary
Yeah, and there are more than a few big names in fashion that our audience will know that have embraced the leotard now, renaming it the bodysuit.
- [47:20]
April Callahan
Yes, exactly. That's right.
- [47:22]
Kassidy Zachary
I can think of. Let's see. I think you talked about Alaia in the book and also Donna Cairn.
- [47:27]
April Callahan
That's right.
- [47:27]
Kassidy Zachary
It was playing with that layering, there's.
- [47:29]
April Callahan
No question, because I think it's interesting, Donna Karan was trying to make a new uniform for the working woman, especially those working in the corporate environment. Give you something that was a little bit of step away from the adaptation of a man's suit. Sexier, but also powerful. And Lyle was just full blown high fashion. But in both cases, the leotarder bodysuit becomes the perfect underlayer for this. But again, we see this transition because when we are now seeing greater diversity within the fashion industry, black dancers are also mirroring the kind of black models and black fashion designers that are coming out. So, again, this idea of using dance as a unifying element is really important. And remember that the 1970s was the really golden age of dance in America. Modern dance, many different non western dance forms, classical ballet, as well as popular social dance like disco, everybody was dancing. Despite rising crime rates and the fact that the city was in financial crisis and we had blackouts and all sorts of things, it was an incredibly vibrant period.
- [48:28]
Kassidy Zachary
Speaking of big names and designers in this intersection of dance, I want to mention an associated exhibition that's up at the museum right now. And these are actually costumes from the New York City Ballet. Wondering if you can tell us why these costumes in particular are especially significant.
- [48:46]
April Callahan
Well, it's been an interesting trip recently where I think fashion is just hot everywhere. Let's face it, there are more fashion exhibitions in museums than ever. And what better art form than dance to embrace this phenomenon? I think it was starting in 2012, Sarah Jessica Parker, who was on the board of the New York City Ballet, said, why don't we do our fall fashion gala around a fashion theme, Commissioned young choreographers to work with a designer, established fashion designer, and then we'll wed this together. And it's been incredibly successful. The person who oversees all of this has been my partner in crime here with this exhibition. The great Mark Happel. He is the director of the New York City Ballet costume department, and he not only helps build these costumes, he is really the collaborator between all the entities, between the choreographers, the dancers, as well as the designers. And Mark himself is a designer in his own right. But we felt what a great way to celebrate this, because although the exhibition focuses on a very narrow time period, and it's very much about how high fashion has adapted classical ballet, why not show something more contemporary? And so the New York City Ballet, the entire company, was so wonderful and flexible, they let us put some of their brilliant collaborations right in our lobby.
- [50:00]
Kassidy Zachary
And who are a few of the collaborators, if I may ask?
- [50:04]
April Callahan
Well, we see people like Dries Van Noten. We see Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen. We see people like Virgil Abloh. So. So it runs the gamut between traditional, established European designers and other younger, newer names.
- [50:19]
Kassidy Zachary
Yeah, and you can check that out when you come visit. Ballerina.
- [50:22]
April Callahan
Exactly. You don't even have to come in. You can see them from the street.
- [50:25]
Kassidy Zachary
We are almost out of time today. Patricia, is there anything that we missed in particular that you wanted to touch on briefly.
- [50:32]
April Callahan
I just really wanted to thank the ballerinas themselves who have been so supportive through this process. Of course, getting to meet Sono Sato was but dancers such as Virginia Johnson and Deborah Austin who were part of our program and we did one on pioneering black ballerinas. They've also contributed to the exhibition. Carol Devay Harding, who was with the company she's now on our Couture Council, has been tremendously supportive. And then also Mimi Paul and Joy Williams Brown, they were ballet dancers who began their careers with George Balanchine. And having them speak to me about this amazing time period, it's a dream come true and has been so inspiring, inspirational.
- [51:06]
Kassidy Zachary
Thank you so much. I think any of our listeners who want to come check out Ballerina are also going to be inspired like you were and we really appreciate you joining us today.
- [51:16]
April Callahan
Thank you so much, April. I'm very grateful.
- [51:18]
Kassidy Zachary
Thank you.
- [51:19]
Patricia Mears
Patricia, thank you so much for joining us to talk about your exhibition and the companion book which covers more than 300 years of ballet history. I am so excited to get my hands on that book if I can actually see the exhibit in person. April is I'm a huge fan of ballet. My favorite activity while studying at FIT was to attend performances at the New York City Ballet at Lincoln center, just one of the many companies in New York. And there's just something so magical and supremely elegant about the ballerina. I highly suggest following Misty Copeland and Isabella Boyston Boy Stone. I'm a apologize if I don't know how to pronounce her last name, but follow her on IG for this daily fix. Of all things Ballier Isabella is constantly posting her rehearsals and it's just really refreshing and beautiful reminder on the Daily from her and Misty. And I also just want to suggest a few flicks for our listeners Center Stage and the Red Shoes. Have you ever seen the Red Shoes, April? I didn't know what to expect. I've read about it, heard about it for years. 1948 film about this ballerina. She's torn between her love for a man and her love for ballet. And there is this epic quasi sci fi fantasy bit in the middle. I don't know how else to explain it. You can find it on YouTube. I'm also going to post a link in the episode description so you can check it out because it's pretty incredible.
- [52:43]
Kassidy Zachary
Yeah. And just a little bit more about the exhibition. You can check out images from the exhibition online since no one can see it in person at the particular moment. But the show features so, so many beautiful fashions that were inspired by the ballet world. From the designers who drew inspiration from the stage to the ballerinas who actually wore their creations cast. This pas de deux between fashion and ballet has really been an ongoing love affair for years and years. And there's this really amazing image which I'm going to post on Instagram, that I think encapsulates this relationship. It's a black and white cover of Vogue from December 11, 1909. And on the COVID there's a ballerina, a photograph of her. She's on full point. Her arms are really fully extended horizontally straight from her shoulder line. And she's wearing that classic ballet costume, the satin pointe shoes. She has on tights. She has on a bodice, which appears to be heavily corseted. But the best part, the best part is her tutu because it extends to. To just below her knee. But in the way that she's positioned, the stiffness of the tutu forces the back of it up, so it's rising to just below her ears. It's this really lovely, sublime image.
- [54:00]
Patricia Mears
And not to mention that it really sums up fashion's infatuation with the ballerina mystique. The ballerina now celebrated on the COVID of one of the world's most prestigious fashion magazines in 1909, when only 50 years previous. Previous, many professional ballet dancers were paid so little that they had no choice but to enter a life of prostitution on the side.
- [54:20]
Kassidy Zachary
And there's no denying that the life of women who preceded us came with different struggles and complications than the ones that we may be experiencing now. And this is a hard moment for us now, for sure. But, Cass, my hope is that born out of all of this, we just might find the courage to enact the necessary and social and environmental changes that are long overdue.
- [54:44]
Patricia Mears
And on that note, dress listeners, that does it for us this week. We hope you are all happy, healthy, and safe. And even if getting dressed for no one else but yourself and immediate family, perhaps you'll consider adding a little bit of ballerina chic into your ensemble next time you get dressed.
- [55:04]
Kassidy Zachary
Remember, we love hanging hearing from you. So if you'd like to write to us, you can do so@hellorusthistory.com or you can also DM us on Instagram Restore podcast, which is, of course, where you'll find reels and posts accompanying each week's episodes. We get so many questions from you all about our recommendations for fashion history books. So if you're interested you can always find a link in our show Notes to our book shop Bookshelf. So that address is bookshop.org shop dressed and there you can find over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles.
- [55:43]
Patricia Mears
You can also find a link to that in our show Notes where you can find a link to dressedhistory.com which of course is our website where you can check out our latest offerings from the dress universe that includes our classes and our tours. So head over to dresshistory.com and see what we have up our sleeves. Love dress but want to skip the ads? Consider subscribing to our ad free version of the show for just $3 a month and enjoy our eight new episodes a month ad free. That does it for us today. Dress listeners. Thank you as always for tuning in and more dress coming your way very soon. The History of Fashion is a production of Dressed Media.
- [56:21]
April Callahan
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