Sonia Delaunay: The Art of Everything, part II, an interview with Waleria Dorogova (Dressed Classic)

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: Dressed: The History of Fashion
Episode: Sonia Delaunay: The Art of Everything, Part II – Interview with Waleria Dorogova (Dressed Classic)
Date: March 6, 2026
Host(s): Cassidy Zachary and April Callahan
Guest: Waleria Dorogova, co-curator of “Sonia Delaunay: Living Art” at the Bard Graduate Center

---

Episode Overview

This episode is the second part of Dressed’s exploration of Sonia Delaunay, highlighting her multifaceted career as an artist, fashion and textile designer, and interior decorator. Hosts Cassidy Zachary and April Callahan talk with exhibition co-curator Waleria Dorogova about Delaunay's groundbreaking approach to fashion, textiles, and tapestries, exploring her unique business practices, artistic process, innovative use of color, and enduring legacy.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Sonia Delaunay’s Unique Approach to Fashion Design

[03:49 – 08:53]

• Delaunay operated her fashion business from her home, prioritizing creativity and intimacy over adherence to traditional Couture methods.
• Clients would visit her at home, often artists or friends, and could even bring their own fabrics for her to work with.
• The process was informal and did not follow the haute couture seasonal system; garments were made to order, and fittings occurred in her living space.
• Efforts by business managers (notably Jean Couturat) to modernize and commercialize her practice were resisted; Delaunay insisted on control, which meant less financial success for her fashion house but elevated her brand and promoted her other art and design activities.
• Notable clients included Jean and Annette Couturat, photographer Thérèse Bonney, and most famously, actress Gloria Swanson (who owned a “point du jour” coat from 1926).

Quote:
“She didn’t adhere to the seasonal system of haute couture, which means that she didn’t really show during what we would now call Fashion Week. And she didn’t make seasonal collections. But it was all much, much more informal and happening in her home.” – Waleria Dorogova [05:20]

2. Delaunay’s Fusions of Painting and Textile

[08:53 – 10:12]

• Delaunay’s embroidery techniques blurred the lines between textile and painting, using stitches as if they were brushstrokes.
• Her earliest known surviving embroidery (1909) is highlighted in the exhibition as an example of this in-between art form.

Quote:
“She tried to use the stitches like she would use a brush.” – Waleria Dorogova [09:25]

3. Embracing New Media and Fashion Promotion

[09:39 – 14:28]

• Delaunay was a pioneer in promoting her work through new media platforms: fashion photography, film, and stage.
• In 1926, she designed costumes for the black-and-white film Le Petit Parigord, creating black-and-white textiles to best suit the medium.
• She crafted “product placement” opportunities by making available for purchase the very costumes seen in film.
• The 1926 color “Paladorian film” is described as a landmark fashion film, using real color to showcase kinetic color effects and transformations, blending performance art and fashion advertising.
  • Example from the film: A mannequin’s dress transforms and interacts with colored backgrounds to demonstrate color theory in motion.
• In later years (1972), a 20-minute retrospective art film was created by Patrick Renaud, blending Sonya’s commentary with moving stills and her favorite music.

Quotes:
“It is a sequence of different scenes... made with a rather costly and complicated technique that is able to project real and natural color, which of course is very attractive to her.” – Waleria Dorogova [11:25]
“She designs them in black and white to get this optical kinetic effect that you wouldn't have if you were just using colorful or regular colored dresses.” – Waleria Dorogova [10:53]

4. Sonya Delaunay’s Tapestries – A Medium of Monumentality

[14:28 – 19:00]

• Delaunay turned to tapestry in the last decades of her life, drawing on France’s deep woven arts tradition.
• Collaborated with major French tapestry workshops (such as Atelier Tabard, Gobelin, Beauvais, Planton).
• State commissions in the 1960s and 70s allowed her to create monumental works from small gouache studies, enabling grand scale without physical strain in her advanced age.
• Tapestry became a means of continuing her integration of art and architecture, allowing exploration of space and color on a vast scale.
• Her tapestries, along with associated exhibitions, helped her become particularly well known in the US during the 1970s.

Quote:
“Tapestries were the perfect medium for Sonja at the time, because not only are they woven wool... but also because they allow her to prepare a gouache on a very small scale that can then be transformed into something huge, a monumental work of art.” – Waleria Dorogova [17:10]

5. Late-Career Recognition and Expanding Legacy

[21:24 – 27:38]

• From the late 1950s, Delaunay attained major international recognition, such as retrospectives (notably in Bielefeld and at the Louvre).
• Donations to national museums in France, strategic alliances with government figures (e.g., André Malraux), and her gifts to state collections solidified her place in French art history.
• Continued innovation in her eighties and nineties: working with art books, multiples (like scarves, plates, playing cards, even car and record sleeve designs), and accessible objects.
• Delaunay embraced both “high” and “low” art, proliferating her art into everyday life and marketing herself through charming, playful designs.

Quotes:
“She was recognized as a pioneer of abstraction, as somebody who revolutionized art in the early 20th century… At the same time she celebrated as a contemporary artist who exhibits frequently and represents France.” – Waleria Dorogova [24:53]
“She said herself that her work came 40 years too early. And she was right because everything that she had done in the 20s, 40 years later felt really contemporary and modern.” – Waleria Dorogova [26:29]

6. Artistic Legacy and Emotional Impact

[27:38 – 30:56]

• Delaunay is praised for her unprecedented influence, redefining the links between fine art, fashion, and interior design, and for being a model of self-sufficiency and creative freedom.
• Her body of work is described as joyful, accessible, and deeply personal—a testament to color’s emotional power and to her intuitive approach.
• The exhibition aims to provide visitors with an emotional and uplifting experience, reflecting the spirit of Delaunay’s art.

Quotes:
“She completely redefined the relationship between fine art and all other disciplines that are supposedly lower... everything is so joyful. You look at her art ... and anything, whether it was made in 1913 or 1973, is just so full of life and seems completely timeless.” – Waleria Dorogova [28:15]
“You can’t walk out and not feel something.” – April Callahan [30:12]

---

Standout Quotes

• On Fashion Process:
  “She didn’t adhere to the seasonal system of haute couture... It was all much, much more informal and happening in her home.” – Waleria Dorogova [05:20]
• On Artistic Fusion:
  “She tried to use the stitches like she would use a brush.” – Waleria Dorogova [09:25]
• On Film and Promotion:
  “It was pretty much a PowerPoint presentation for this vlog. So it’s really a perfect illustration of her color theory, but shown on fashion and film.” – Waleria Dorogova [12:55]
• On Tapestries:
  “Tapestries were the perfect medium for Sonja at the time... they allow her to prepare a gouache on a very small scale that can then be transformed into something... monumental.” – Waleria Dorogova [17:10]
• On Legacy:
  “Everything that she created came from her inner self. And you can see... that it’s almost like this organic entity where everything is connected with each other.” – Waleria Dorogova [30:18]

---

Notable Moments by Timestamp

• [03:58] Host reads client’s evocative description of entering Delaunay’s fashion world.
• [04:59] Dorogova details Delaunay's distinct, informal business process and client relationships.
• [08:53] Discussion of the “point du jour” embroidery; its painterly qualities and visual effects.
• [10:12] Delaunay’s use of photography, film, and fashion as public media; the “Paladorian film” explained.
• [14:28] The significance of Delaunay’s tapestry work, her late-career embrace of the medium.
• [21:42] Milestones of later-life recognition; retrospectives, museum donations, and political connections.
• [27:38] Waleria reflects on Delaunay’s lasting impact and joyful, timeless art.
• [30:12] April remarks on the emotional resonance of the exhibition experience.

---

Conclusion

This episode portrays Sonia Delaunay as an endlessly inventive artist who lived her philosophy of “living art”—merging painting, textiles, fashion, and design into a unified vision. She anticipated modern modes of art-making and marketing, refused to compartmentalize creativity, and left a legacy that is both joyful and utterly contemporary. As co-curator Waleria Dorogova observes, Delaunay’s work remains a vibrant source of emotional and aesthetic inspiration.

---

For further information or to obtain the exhibition catalog, refer to the episode show notes or visit the Bard Graduate Center exhibition “Sonia Delaunay: Living Art.”

Transcript

[A]

Dress Listeners, Laundry Sauce is about to make Laundry day one of your favorite days of the week. The difference between laundry Sauce and my old detergent is night and day, and it's honestly crazy how detergent that smells actually good can completely transform your laundry routine from a chore into something that actually makes you happy.

[B]

And Laundry Sauce isn't just about premium laundry pods. It's a full upgrade for your entire laundry routine. With their fabric softener, dryer sheets, scent booster, and Fresh Fabric Fresher spray, you'll have everything you need to transform your laundry experience from basic to extraordinary.

[A]

There's a lot of scents to choose from, and whichever scent you choose, subscribing to the signature package will keep you stocked with all of your must haves, bringing them straight to your door on your schedule, saving you an errand, and making sure that you never run out in the middle of your wash day again. I'm a big fan of the Italian bergamot scent, which has notes of sweet Mandarin, vetiver, sandalwood and Indonesian patchouli.

[B]

And for a limited time only, our listeners get 20% off your entire order when you use code [e-mail] that's 20% off atlaundrysauce.com with promo code dressed. And after you check out, they'll ask you where you heard about them. So don't forget to drop our name. Trust us, your laundry's never smelled this good.

[C]

Sick of those trivia podcasts that you don't even understand how to operate and they just have too many levers and buttons.

[D]

There's got to be a better way.

[C]

Now there is with Good Job Brain, an offbeat quiz show and trivia podcast that makes learning new things easy and fun.

[E]

I just learned that artificial vanilla flavoring sometimes comes from the anal glands of a beaver and now I can never shake that mental image. Thanks.

[C]

Good Job Brain Good Job Brain is available for the low price of just four easy payments of free. It's a podcast.

[B]

Good Job Brain is part of Airwave Media and available on all podcast apps. Operators are standing by. Please enjoy one of our favorite episodes from the Dressed archive of over 500 plus shows.

[D]

Dressed the History of Fashion is a production of Dressed Media. With over 8 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day, we all get dressed.

[B]

Welcome to Dressed the History of Fashion, a podcast that explores the who, what, when of why we wear. We are fashion historians and your hosts

[D]

Cassidy Zachary and April Callahan. Dress listeners. We are back today with part two of our investigation of the work of the artist, interior decorator, fashion and textile designer Sonya Dillonay. She was really truly one of the most important creators during the 20th century and her work spanned more than 60 years. And while she is mostly remembered today as a painter and also a founder of the art movement known as Simultaneous, a groundbreaking new exhibition at the Bard Graduate center in New York City is taking a closer look at her creative output in the realm of fashion and textiles.

[B]

On view through July 7, 2024, the exhibition, Sonya Delaunay Living Art was co curated by Valeria Dorogova and Laura Micolis. And while Laura wasn't able to join us, Valeria chatted with us earlier this week to tell us about Sonja's background, her obsession and incredible work with color, as well as the diversity of her creative expression. And today we are going to learn a little bit more about her work in the realm of fashion, textiles and tapestries. So without further ado, we pick back up with our conversation with Valeria.

[D]

There's a really wonderful quote in your book, and it's one of her clients describing the experience of walking into her fashion world.

[E]

Right.

[D]

I'm going to read it if I can. It says, quote, you enter her home, she shows you dresses, furniture, designs for furniture, designs for dresses. They do not look like anything you can find at the couturiers or at the exhibitions. In truth, they are new things. But the impression of newness that is typically accompanied by mistrust is not here, simply optimistic. Sonya Delaney dresses and she dresses in the strictest sense. She designs, but what she designs is not a dress, not a scarf, but a new creature. And I just love this quote so much about, about her fashion work and, and contextualizing it with the furniture, with all these other creations that she's making. She's pretty much a full fledged fashion designer at this point. So you just mentioned that you could go into the American department stores, you can get a hat, you could get a scarf. What types of clothing was she making and what was her process? And who were some of her notable customers, if there are any.

[E]

So Sonia Delaunay as a fashion designer is quite an interesting phenomenon because as I mentioned, she had a proper fashion brand and a company that advertised internationally and was fairly well known, but she certainly didn't work the same way as other Maisons du Couture. And she was conducting her business in a much more informal and personal manner. And first of all, she didn't have a business venue, but operated from her living room. And your, your wonderful quote describes precisely that Experience entering the. The apartment where the family lived at Boulevard Malesherbe. And she would, you would, you would sit in her living room and she would present you things. But she didn't adhere to the seasonal system of haute couture, which means that she didn't really show during what we would now call Fashion Week. And she didn't make seasonal collections. But it was all much, much more informal and happening in her home. And her clients, who were mainly friends or generally people with an artistic occupation, they would visit her and whatever they liked, whether it was something she had just come up with or an older design she would make for them. And she mostly sourced the fabrics or, you know, had had them ordered after her designs. But you could also bring her fabric that you found elsewhere, and then she would have it cut by a professional and give it to her embroiderer or silk painter. And then she would have the client come for several fittings and make the sale. But everybody else worked in their homes who she supplied with these little commissions, like making an embroidery. We don't know a lot about how the business worked in the 20s, because this journal that I mentioned begins in 1933. But we do know that she hired a financial advisor and manager in 1926, when the whole business really takes off. His name was Jacques Jacquemont, but he left her in the same year. And then this role was occupied by somebody called Jean Couture. And he is a really interesting figure because he was a well known engineer who was a great intellectual and pioneer in rationalist business development. So he wanted to take her business and, and modernize it and make it more efficient. And he wanted to sign contracts, department stores, and make this line more accessible. But she was completely against these ideas because she wanted to retain full control over everything. And the result of this was that the fashion house, as opposed to the textile business, didn't make much money. But it was really great advertising for everything else she did for the interior design commissions and, and for the textiles, obviously, and all her decorating jobs at the time. And funnily, Jean Couture himself was a great client because he wore garments by Sonja. She also made menswear, but she also decorated his apartment in the early 1930s. And his wife, Annette Couture, bought dresses from Sonja on a regular basis. And two of those are actually in our exhibition. One of them is really beautiful. It's hand painted with delicate flowers. And you can see how much, how much artistic effort goes into these creations. And you asked about famous clients. I would say that some of the more famous ones were poulette Parks or also the photographer Therese Bonnet. But the. The most famous that people know of is probably Gloria Swanson, who had a code in the Pont du Jour technique made in 1926.

[D]

Oh, they're so beautiful. And you have an example in the exhibition of that point du jour embroidery. And it. I don't even know how to begin to describe it, except for the fact that it looks like it's painting, but, you know, it's not. Right. It's embroidery, but it almost looks like brushstrokes that have been embroidered onto the substance.

[B]

It's just.

[E]

It does, really. And in the exhibition, we have her earliest known object that survives, which is an embroidery from 1909, which is. It's not an embroidery and it's not a painting. It's something in between. And it's exactly that. That she tried to use the stitches like she would use a brush.

[D]

And I think one of the things that's very interesting that comes up again and again in various essays in the exhibition catalog is d' Lanay's willingness, as people have phrased it, to engage in these new methods of transmission. Would you speak a little bit more to that? Because I think that the Pont du Jour kind of might be one of those things, but then it just radiates outwards. I also would love it if you would speak about some of the incredibly rare fashion films that are featured in the exhibition.

[E]

Yes. So I mentioned a few times that Sonia was very aware of the need to promote herself in various ways. And like she did in the 1925 exhibition, or with the simultaneous dress that photographed and publicized widely. And as somebody who is generally profoundly fascinated by all kinds of people, technological developments, and embraced all new media, she realized that much of it was something that could be used to her advantage. And the most obvious examples are fashion photography or dressing an actress for their role in film. For example, in 1926, she was hired by the director Rene Lecenti to work on the film Le Petit Parigord, for which she supplied textiles and costume in black and white. And what's really interesting is that because she knows that she's working for a monochrome media, she designs them in black and white to get this optical kinetic effect that you wouldn't have if you were just using colorful or regular colored dresses. And all of these designs were something that you could purchase at the same time at her studio. So it's pretty much product placement. But the most remarkable use of film by Sonia is the color film of 1926, the so called Paladorian film. It is. It is not really a film with a narrative. It is a sequence of different scenes that altogether are four minutes long and made with a rather costly and complicated technique that is able to project a real and natural color, which of course is very attractive to her. And she uses this method to shoot a fashion film that is absolutely fascinating, not only because you can see how the design work in movement, but because also you can see how she combines her color theory with promoting the fashion. In one scene, for example, there's a mannequin wearing a blue dress, and she stands on a pedestal in front of an orange background. And then she steps down a couple of steps and takes off the top layer of her outfit. And that reveals an orange dress in which she steps in front of blue background. So you can see

[D]

it's a bit of performance art. It's all the things at the same time.

[E]

Completely or in a different scene, you have a mannequin in an orange and black dress who turns a life size grayscale that looks like a giant wheel as a nod to the circle, as a symbol of magic, modernity, but also the color, the color scale as a tool for painters. And this film was used by her in January of 1927 to show during a lecture she gave at the Sorbonne on the influence of painting on fashion design. It was pretty much a PowerPoint presentation for this vlog. So it's really a perfect illustration of her color theory. But shown on fashion and film was something that she continued to be so excited about even in old age. In our exhibition on the first floor, we have an art film that was shot by Patrick Renaud, who worked for sonia in the 1970s. And we had the absolute pleasure of speaking a lot to him and meeting him. And he told us how in 1972, he created this work for which he was able to shoot Sonja's masterpieces in Paris and New York. And he edited them, he edited them to a sequence of moving stills. And then he showed this to Sonja in a silent version and recorded what she could tell about these things, and then edited her voice in and mixed it with music that she loves. And the result is this very funky 20 minute retrospective of her work. And it's very, very much of the time. But, you know, she was. She was in her late 80s at the time, but she realized that this film, which was shown across Paris and won prices and was very popular, was a great way of promoting her work.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, it never stopped. It never stopped. One of the things that she was also engaging in, if I'm understanding correctly, a little bit later in her life or continuing to engage in, is her tapestries. And we haven't really spoken about this too much, but beings, they are textile related, of course. Laura wrote an entire chapter in the exhibition catalog on Sonja's tapestries. And I think that the tapestries are very, very interesting because they do, once again, sit at that intersection of painting, interior design, fashion design. Would you speak a little bit about her tapestry work? I would love to learn more.

[E]

Yes, absolutely. That is Laura's chapter, is my favorite chapter in the book, in fact. Tapestries were a medium that Sonia engaged with only in the later decades of her life. And they had been actually a major medium for many avant garde artists in the interwar period, for example, Picasso, Le Corbusier or Fermont Leger. And this is thanks to Marie Coutully, who was a friend of Sonyeus and who was a pioneer in the tapestry revival of the 1930s. But at this early stage, and even though they were friends, even though they were friends, Sonia did not have any tapestries produced after her sketches then in the 1930s, but she did create rugs and, and carpets for the achievements that she created. Tapestries didn't really occupy her until the late 1950s. And she started working with three workshops to produce tapestries in the late 50s. This was the Atelier Tabard in Aubusson, which is the historical center for tapestry weaving in France. And this was initiated by the gallerist Denise Venet, who approached Sonia. And then she was commissioned by the French state in the 1960s to design tapestries that were woven at the Gobelin and Bourbon Beauvais for the Mobilier national in Paris, which is the administration and repository for all the state owned furniture and rugs and tapestries and things like that. And then in the 1970s, she collaborated on a series of tapestries with Planton, which is a privately owned company. And in the exhibition we have this really magnificent large tapestry woven by Beauvais in 1975, and it is on loan from the Mobilier National. And next to it you have the cartoon. So the design sketch for it that was used to make it, and to see them together is quite illuminating to understand that tapestries were the perfect medium for Sonja at the time, because not only are they woven wool, which is something that comes very naturally to her, but also because they allow her to prepare a gouache on a very Small scale that can then be transformed into something that is huge, that is a monumental work of art. And that's not an unimportant aspect because say in the 70s she's of an advanced age where she cannot really handle very large canvases anymore. But she's really keen to explore the relationship between art and architecture as she always was. And the tapestries are something that allowed her to continue this exploration of space. And you know, she was, she was so interested in the relationship between the wall and the artwork and perfect for this. And she was really actively involved in their production and she understood the whole process, which is why she was able to to create the perfect design. And then of course tapestry weaving has a centuries long tradition and heritage in France and that's something that must have had a great appeal on Sonja and for the state run workshops. It was great to have an artist of this caliber because they struggled to modernize their production and find again the idea that tapestries were something that was of the past. And what's really curious is that Sonja's tapestries were something that made her really well known in the United States because there were several exhibitions across across Manhattan in the 1970s and then.

[A]

Dress listeners, by now many of you know that I only wear vintage or sustainable fashion and sometimes it's hard for me to find brands when I need to refresh my wardrobe. So as I embark on cleaning out my closet this spring and need to replace some staple pieces, I'll be headed straight to Quince.

[B]

Quint's has all the staples covered from their 100% silk tops and skirts for easy dressing up which I love to perfectly cut denim for everyday wear. Their wardrobe essentials are crafted to last season after season.

[A]

And like everything from Quince, each piece is made with premium materials in ethical trusted factories. So from bedding and home goods to ethically and sustainably produced fashion, Quince is a carefully curated source for consciously produced things with all need in our day

[B]

to day lives right now. Go to quince.com dressed for free shipping and 365 day returns. That's a full year to wear it and love it. And you will now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to Quinced for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com dressed

[A]

obsessed with your favorite luxury brands but on a realreal budget? Well, join Cass and I over at the RealReal where we have been customers for years.

[B]

Yes dress listeners, if you're on the hunt for pre loved items from your favorite luxury brands, there is no better source than the RealReal. The RealReal has found new homes for over 37 million authenticated luxury items so they know firsthand the impact resale has on the planet. Rather than producing more stuff, the RealReal is making what already exists new.

[A]

The RealReal is the easiest and fastest way to sell. With over 40 plus million members ready to shop your closet, they use real time data to determine the highest possible price for every item and handle all of the work for you from photography and copywriting to shipping and customer service. Because your to do list is already

[B]

long enough, the RealReal is the most trusted name in authenticated luxury resell. With over 10,000 new arrivals daily. No one does resell like the RealReal. And now get 25 off of your first purchase when you go to therealreal.com dressed. That's therealreal.com dressed to get your $25 off. Start shopping [e-mail] dressed

[D]

if she was the one of the darlings of the Parisian avant garde early in her career, late in her career, her fame just grew and grew and grew and grew. So what were some of the milestones of those latter years in the 1950s, the 1960s and in the 1970s?

[E]

In the 1950s, Sonja was in her 60s, but in many ways it always seems to me that she was this young, energetic artist who didn't shy away from any new project and that she was so excited about what was happening in the art world and she was part of different artist collectives like the Bust. She begins working with mosaics in 1954. She paints a great deal of work, she still designs textiles, et cetera, et cetera. And at the same time in the 1950s, she begins to receive serious international recognition. And in 1958 I mentioned that she was given her first major retrospective in Bielefeld in Germany, which was curated by Gustav Reason, who had actually met her because he wanted to write a book on Robert. But then he came to her and saw what she was doing and decided that he he has to work with her now and that that was something he really wanted to do. And what was special about this exhibition is that it was probably the first to show the full range of all her work of the object together with the paintings and the drawings, which, you know, was was quite bold as a curatorial decision. And only after this exhibition in Germany, her work was shown more and more in France and she had begun making donations of her work. But also Robert's work to state collections. One example was her donation to the Musee Nationale d' ar Moderne in 1964, which was exhibited at the Louvre. And you can online, for example, often find the note that Sonia was the first living woman to receive a retrospective at the Louvre. But this was actually not the case. This was a group of just over 100 works by both Delaunay that were carefully selected by Sonia. And it was presented at the Louvre as this important gifts to acknowledge and celebrate her generosity. Two things that are important about this from a strategic point of view is firstly, that she begins solidifying her legacy in the official history of French art by giving these major works to a national museum of modern art. And secondly, she starts building a very good relationship to hugely influential figures like Freud, for example, the Minister of Cultural Affairs, Andre Malraux. And in the course of the 60s and 70s, this relationship to the stage proves very useful because it facilitates some of the major retrospectives that she has. But more importantly, and I think that she enjoyed this greatly, it made her a real superstar in the history of French art, because at once she was recognized as a pioneer of abstraction, as somebody who revolutionized art in the early 20th century and knew people like Lassondra and Apollinaire. But at the same time she celebrated as a contemporary artist who exhibits frequently and. And represents France. And in the exhibition at bgc, we have one work that is emblematic of this, which is painting that Georges Pompidou, the French president, gave to Richard Nixon as a dramatic gift in 1970. That's a big deal, very big deal. So the 1960s and 1970s, when Sonia, she's already in her 80s and 90s, are a hugely productive period. And she really enjoys her fame, but is also full of excitement for new avenues of promotion and of artistic production that she witnesses emerge in the mid-1960s. She also meets Jacques Damas, who was a gallerist and an editor, and the two of them began working on many projects together. For example, limited edition art books that reproduce poetry from her friends with her own bouchoire designs and compositions. And one of these works, for example, is this gigantic Leporello with her fashion costume designs that folds out to the length of several meters, that's in the exhibition. And they also produce lithographs and work with the Arturial Gallery, where, you know, anybody could go and buy Sonja scarves in the 1970s, or plates and limited editions, or, you know, household objects. And this was the time, of course, when art multiples are something that emerges and that's very popular. And I think that she really profited from the fact that the 1920s were fashionable in the 60s and 70s. And she said herself that her work came 40 years too early. And she was right because everything that she had done in the 20s, 40 years later felt really contemporary and modern. And just as when she was young, she was still really unpretentious about this idea of high and low art. And it was great fun for her to design things like playing cards or a sports car or a vinyl record sleeve for her some music label. She really pushed this idea for the playing cards, for example, and wanted them to be produced because she knew that that was something small and accessible. That was great marketing for everything else that she did.

[D]

No, now my mind is just going wild thinking about getting on ebay and seeing if I can search out some of these very, very fun delineate, quote unquote everyday objects.

[E]

Oh, you can, you can.

[D]

You have. And Laura, of course have this incredibly in depth wealth of knowledge and in particular institutes some of these new realms of Delaunay's oeuvre that other people haven't worked on. I'm curious if you have any thoughts about her artistic legacy or perhaps if there are any takeaways or significant discoveries that you want to mention that we haven't already talked about.

[E]

Well, I'm probably extremely biased because in the past four years I pretty much spent every single day with her. But I think that truly very few visual artists of the 20th century had comparable influence to her. She's changed so much. She's changed so much in fashion, and she still inspires designers in fashion, but also in interior design until this day. She completely redefined the relationship between, between fine art and all other disciplines that are supposedly lower. And she changed the way that an artist could shape their own legacy and be this influential force in countless fields. And to me, really, she's a role model in so many ways. She was extremely self sufficient. She was a highly intelligent individual who would always act on her intuition. And she was very free of spirit, a great intellectual. And she managed at the same time to express herself in a very accessible way, whether it was through words or through color. And she had the most impressive work ethic, which I think made her very successful. And despite all these tremendous achievements and this exceptional career and the fame that she enjoyed, I think that the most important aspect about what she created is that everything is so joyful. You look at her art and anything, whether it was made in 1913 or 1973, is just so Full of life and seems completely timeless. And I don't think that many artists of the 20th century have achieved a body of work that touches the. The general public so much later on a level of pure joy.

[D]

Yeah, absolutely. I had. I was talking to a friend the other day who was having a hard time, and I'm like, you know what we're gonna do? I'm like, I've already seen it twice. But when you get back, I'm gonna take you to the Sonya Delaunay exhibition. And it was for that very reason, because there's just something that. There's something very emotional when you walk into that exhibition. You can't walk out and not feel something.

[E]

I completely agree. And I think that is. That has to do with the fact that whatever she did, she was so independent from her surroundings, yet she was inspired by many things like technology or modern life. But at the same time, everything that she created came from her inner self. And you can see across her work, across her body of work, that it's almost like this organic entity where everything is connected with each other. And that is so personal to her as. As a human being. And I think that that's the origin of this. This. Of this joy.

[D]

Yeah. Valeria, thank you so much for your time. More importantly, thank you so much for this exhibition. Dress listeners, we'll tell you in a little bit how to get your hands on a copy of the catalog, because you're definitely going to want to do this. If you love this episode, it's just going to spark even more joy. I just have to say, when you get the book, but we really, really appreciate this. And you and I were talking a little bit before we started recording, but I will see you in a few weeks.

[E]

Thank you so much, April, thank you for having me.

[B]

Valeria, thank you so much for joining us and bringing us such a special show and exhibition catalog and listeners. We have put a link in our show notes if you would like to pick up a copy yourself because we really cannot recommend it enough. It is such a very special gift for any art and. Or fashion lover in your life or for yourself. April, I think that does it for us this week.

[D]

Yes, yes, I think so too.

[B]

May you dress listeners consider the rainbow of possibilities existing in your wardrobe next time you get dressed.

[D]

Please also remember that we love hearing from you. So if you'd like to write to us, you can do so via email@hello, dressed history.com. you can also DM us on Instagram Restore Podcast, which is where we post images accompanying each week's episodes. And if you would like to search for the Instagram content specifically related to this Week's episodes on Sonia. You can search for the hashtags dressed358 or hashtag dressed359. Also, you've heard me say it before here, but once again, I'm going to shamelessly self promote the fact that I'm doing fashion history tours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. So if you happen to live here or if you happen to be in New York on a Friday, you can come join me as we investigate the permanent collection of the Met, and we look at fashionable artworks spanning nearly 5,000 years of history. So if you want to learn a little bit more about that, you can check, check out our [e-mail] and you can also book there.

[B]

And dress history.com dress listeners under our tour section is also where very shortly we promise to announce our Paris fashion history dates and you can register your interest because people in that list are going to be the first to know. And we are expecting this to sell out. So we hope to see you there.

[D]

Yes, we, Cass and I spent a ton of time this morning finalizing every single event, finalizing every single date, rearranging the schedule. We're super, super happy to be able to offer this to all of you because we've been doing this since 2021, and I think that we have kind of perfected and refined the schedule and what we're doing and where we're going. And there's even some new offerings on it this year.

[B]

Yes, we're so excited to share it with you. So if you want to be the first to know, you will be the first to know if you sign up for that email list under dresshistory.com tours. Okay. Thank you dress listeners, as always, for tuning in. And more dressed coming your way on Wednesday. The History of Fashion is a production of dress media.