![\"Callot](\"http:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/materialmode\/files\/2016\/05\/US.NNFIT_.SC_.146.9.Callot187.c1917.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOver the last few years, Material Mode has frequently referenced the symbiotic relationship between Parisian couture and American fashion during the first half of the 20th century. \u00a0US-based ready-to-wear manufacturers looked to Paris to set the mode, which they subsequently mimicked, with riffs and revisions. \u00a0Inversely, the American dollar was a critical source of income for Parisian haute couture. That wealthy American women formed a formidable segment of their clientele is widely documented. Lesser-known, however, is the important stream of income that came \u00a0into the\u00a0maisons<\/i>\u00a0de couture<\/em> from licensing deals granting US department stores and manufacturers the rights to legitimately copy haute couture<\/em> models.<\/p>\n Our holdings are ripe with primary sources evidencing this decades-long exchange between the fashion industries of France and America. \u00a0This case study will focus on just one of the many collections that explicitly document how Parisian designs found their way into the closets of upper and middle-class American women who may have never set foot on French soil.<\/p>\n As early as 1897, Max Meyer, a buyer for the American cloak and suit manufacturer A. Beller & Co., gained entr\u00e9e (by way of an introduction by Lord & Taylor representatives in Paris) into the Callot S\u0153urs couture house for the purposes of officially licensing models to be copied by their ready-to-wear operations in the United States. \u00a0Much later in writings about his life, Meyer states that he believed he was the first representative of American RTW manufacturers to be invited in to the hallowed halls of haute couture. \u00a0<\/em>He credited his success at breaking this industry barrier largely to the fact that he spoke fluent French, which seemed to ease the skepticism of his assigned vendeuse<\/em>. \u00a0As the collection documents, later many other couture houses welcomed Meyer through their doors, including Chanel just a few short years after the establishment of her brand.<\/p>\n Over the course of his 39 year career as a buyer and executive for A. Beller & Co., Meyer visited Paris 110 times licensing designs from top houses including Chanel, Lanvin, Cheruit, Jenny, Paquin, Premet, Callot S\u0153urs, Worth, Drecoll, Poiret, Patou and many others.\u00a0 Largely the garments were suits or outerwear, but occasionally dresses, which coordinated with an outerwear garment were included in their collections.<\/p>\n The A. Beller & Co. adaptations of imported models as well as the company\u2019s own original designs were of the highest quality and retailed at high-end department stores.\u00a0 The company\u2019s product was considered the gold standard for American manufacturers, and as executives, Beller and Meyer were widely respected within the industry.\u00a0 Meyer, in particular, was heavily involved with various garment trade worker unions and an activist for worker\u2019s rights and labor reform. Meyer retired from A. Beller & Co. in 1929 two years before the company would shutter its doors amid the Great Depression.<\/p>\n Meyer\u2019s personal involvement with the fashion industries did not end upon his retirement. In 1939, he helped found the Central High School of the Needle Trades to prepare young minds and hands for careers in the fashion industry.\u00a0 The High School would expand to become the Fashion Institute of Technology in 1944, making Meyer one of the founding fathers of our home institution, where he served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Acting President at the time of his death in 1953.<\/p>\n(click on an image to launch gallery slideshow)<\/h4>\n
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