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The Fit Flapper
In 1924, American Vogue opined, “At the beginning of beauty lies the beautiful figure. For it is the single thing about a woman that comes nearest to dominating in the ensemble of her attractiveness.” It may not be able to be said more plainly the import placed upon a sleek physique during the 1920s, as…
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Fashion Plates: 150 Years of Style
Just released this week, Fashion Plates: 150 Years of Style, which features 200 fashion plates from our collection. Many of these beautiful images, which date between 1778-1928, have not been reproduced since their original date of publication. Thank you to Yale University Press for their unerring support of this project which is currently available as…
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Tennis in the ’20s
Three tennis looks, created by an unidentified French designer in 1926, the year women’s professional tennis was established. Material Mode has a quibble. After attending the exhibition The Rise of Sneaker Culture yesterday at the Brooklyn Museum, we left feeling that some of the exhibition labels…
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Sports et divertissements
During the 1910s and 1920s, Paris was a hotbed of artistic experimentation. The hierarchy of artistic mediums seemed to dissolve away as painters collaborated with dancers, fashion designers with decorative artists, and—in the case of Sports et divertissements— illustrators with musicians. The musical scores and illustrations seen here are reproductions of…
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Shooting for Ladies
Anyone who’s ever seen a James Bond movie knows that a lady in an evening gown is always sexier when wielding a gun—the same, it seems, was also true more than a century ago if we are to believe Walter Winans’ 1911 title Shooting for Ladies. Created with the intention of tutoring ladies in the…