Inventive Paris clothes: 1909-1939 – a photographic essay

by Irving Penn ; with text by Diana Vreeland.

Inventive Paris Clothes 1909 1939: A Photographic Essay by Irving Penn. NY: A Studio Book / Viking Press, 1977. Hardcover in dust jacket, 96 pp. A superb collection of b/w photographs presented in essay format by influential fashion photographer Irving Penn. Best known for his classically elegant visual style and his long association with Vogue magazine, these photographs feature Paris fashions that appeared in Vreeland’s exhibition “The Tens, The Twenties, The Thirties: Inventive Clothes/ 1909-1939” at the The Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute, Dec. 14, 1973-May, 1974. The work of Paul Poiret, Madeleine Vionnet, Callot, Molyneux, Paquin, Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli are some of early 20th century French couture masters included in this look at fashion as it evolved from the Belle Epoque into the modern era, just before WWII. From the dust jacket: “The fashions of the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s were as glorious as they were socially reflective. Inspired by the exhibit organized by Diana Vreeland for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Irving Penn’s masterly picture essay captures the flavor of the times as well as literal details of design. Because of her participation in and astute observation of, the scene in which these fashions were born, Diana Vreeland in her text is able to provide a unique glimpse into the lives of each of the couturiers, and her captions to Penn’s sensitive photographs are rich in detail. From the straight-line creations of Paul Poiret to the classically modern work of Gabrielle Chanel and the fanciful innovations of Elsa Schiaparelli, Penn has included the most remarkable material─designs that provided the principles from which all fashion to follow would grow.”