THE FAMOUS ATELIERS
The dressmaker of Paris is an artist. Granted that, it is quite natural
that his workroom should be an atelier. Your true artist works in a
studio, not in a shop; and when one speaks of the famous ateliers of
the Parisian dressmaking world, one but gives the work done in these
establishments its due recognition.
But they are "magasins" as well as ateliers, those establishments in
which fashions are made, and business plays quite as important a part
in them as does art, though even the business in some of its phases
approximates the dignity of a fine art.
The saleswoman of the great dressmaking establishment is certainly an
artist in her line, and perhaps it would not be speaking extravagantly
to call her the shrewdest business woman in the world. She is the
chief figure in that department of the establishment which meets the
public eye and which is designated as the front. Upon her depends
the successful disposal of the creations which are tediously evolved
behind the closed doors, and her work calls for no ordinary ability.
Her knowledge of things Parisian is equalled only by her knowledge of
human nature, her suavity is equalled only by her diplomacy. Her siren
song would make the mermaiden's melodies sound like a hurdy-gurdy.
She could sell a ten-thousand-dollar sable coat to the savage owner
of a hut on the equator--provided she knew that the savage would be
good for the ten thousand dollars. And she _would_ know. That's the
amazing thing about her. She always does know, or if she doesn't, she
finds out by some lightning quick process painless to the customer.
She makes no mistakes, this soft-voiced, smiling, carefully groomed,
persuasive woman, and yet there is such opportunity for mistake in
Paris. It is not only a question of knowing the financial rating of
the husband of Madame A, or of the Countess B. The credit system of
a Parisian dressmaking house is a more complicated thing than that.
When Mademoiselle Blanche of the Scala, at fifty francs a week, drives
up in a luxurious carriage, with coachman, footman, maid, and poodle
all in attendance, sweeps into the show rooms and begins talking of
five-thousand-franc gowns, the saleswoman shows no surprise. She only
wonders and then adroitly institutes a search for the explanation. The
chances are that she can get the story from Blanche herself, by dint of
diplomatic wheedling and flattery. If not--well, there are other ways
of finding out before the material is cut.
And when everyone knows that the Grand Duke has loved and ridden away
from Antoinette of the Folies Bergère, yet Antoinette turns up smiling
and places extravagant orders, one must not be too hasty. A grand
duke may be succeeded by a rich banker. Even if there is no visible
guarantee of the bills, the little woman should not be angered. The
future may hold other grand dukes.
Not highly moral, these calculations, but supremely Parisian. Business
is business, and Parisian business is adapted to Parisian conditions.
The dressmaker does not concern himself about the source from which
the money floods his tills, so long as the money is forthcoming, and
tainted money scruples would sadly demoralize the business prosperity
of the Rue de la Paix.
There are black books in the great dressmaking establishments and queer
things are entered in them, items of information that would furnish
spicy running commentary upon Parisian life. The incomes of Monsieur's
customers are so often fluctuating things. Even in the beau monde
there may be circumstances not generally understood, and, where no
touch of scandal enters into the calculations, still there is room for
mistake. Fortunes may rest on tottering foundations, appearances are
often misleading. Yes, there is much to confide to the black book, and
the dressmakers interchange statistics in right comradelike fashion.
There are men employed whose business it is to investigate all matters
having a bearing upon the financial condition of the women who make up
the clientèles of the famous dressmakers, and it might surprise some
of the gay butterflies that flutter into the luxurious salons of the
dressmaking establishments to know how thoroughly informed concerning
their private affairs are the saleswomen who wait upon them and the
"master" who caters to their whims.
The saleswoman is as clever in dealing with Miss Millions from Chicago
as with the irrepressible Toinette. She flatters so subtly, influences
so insensibly, makes herself so indispensable. Madame must never be
made to feel that her own taste is bad, but she must, if possible, be
guided to wise selection, persuaded to believe that she herself has
decided upon the frock she finally chooses. It is to the interest of
the house that every woman who buys her frocks there should look her
best. Moreover, the woman whose friends praise her clothes will hold
fast to her dressmaker, so the saleswoman does her best, and unless
the customer is very obstinate, that best is surprisingly good. If
necessary, with an old and valued customer the diplomat can be firm,
suavely, politely firm.
"Why have I no black gown on the list?" asks Madame, after studying the
plan of her season's outfit as made out by Mademoiselle Therèse.
Mademoiselle smiles, a deprecatory little smile, but her reply is
prompt.
"We find that this year Madame is not of an age to wear black," she
says simply, sweetly, but with a finality in her tones.
Madame colours, looks resentful, Mademoiselle busies herself with
orders to a mannequin. The pause is ended by a sigh of resignation.
"Oui, c'est vrai," admits Madame. "There is an age, and there is again
an age, but in between--eh, bien, it is true. We must now be careful,
Therèse."
The successful saleswoman gains the confidence of her customers, holds
them, brings millions of francs' worth of business to her employer,
and receives a commission on all sales. One saleswoman, among the best
in her class, makes as much as fifteen thousand dollars a year out of
her commissions, and, though this is exceptional, all earn good incomes.
The mannequins or models are the secondary features of the "front"; but
they are of little importance compared with the saleswomen; and while
it is a difficult thing to replace a good saleswoman, satisfactory
mannequins may be had for the asking.
They are usually recruited from the ranks of the errand girls who swarm
in all of the large dressmaking establishments, and are a sharp-witted,
precocious set of gamins wise in the gossip of the atelier which is the
gossip of all Paris. One of these girls grows up into a good-looking
young woman with an admirable figure, a forty-four-inch skirt length,
a twenty-one-inch waist, and a soaring ambition. She attracts
the attention of the powers that be and is transplanted from her
inconspicuous place behind the scenes to the full glare of the front.
No more trotting about in pursuit of elusive colours and materials, no
more delivering messages and frocks at all hours and in all weathers,
no more being a shabby little atom of humanity at everyone's beck and
call. Henceforward it is her sole duty to be chic, to wear with an air
that will lend cachet to the creations any frocks or wraps which the
saleswoman wishes to show.
Much of the talk concerning the transcendent charms of the Paris
mannequins is great nonsense, and the sensational tales of these
humble beauties and their spectacular marriages--or "arrangements,"
are, as a rule, pure fabrication. There are handsome girls among
them, and one and all they have the French talent for wearing smart
clothes; but their good looks are largely a matter of make-up and
of those same smart clothes. A more ordinary looking group of girls
than the mannequins of a house, when they arrive in the morning,
it would be hard to find, but a half hour in a toilet room works a
transformation, and when Mademoiselle, perfectly corsetted, skilfully
made up as to complexion, eyes, and brows, with her hair dressed in
the latest fashion, her hands and nails beautifully cared for, her
feet clad in dainty high-heeled slippers, sweeps across the show room
wearing a frock that is a dream of beauty--then one understands how the
traditions concerning her have arisen. She is not beautiful perhaps,
but one forgets it, for she is excessively chic, and being that she
fulfils the French law and gospel.
[Illustration: Beer and his Mannequins]
A few mannequins have developed into saleswomen, a few have married
well, a few have become notorious cocottes; one became a favourite
attendant of Queen Victoria, and finally drifted over to New York to
end her days there. A number have found unimportant places upon the
French stage, but, in the main, the mannequins are very ordinary young
women whose history is but the history of the average Parisian working
girl. Perhaps it is demoralizing, this constant masquerading in costly
finery meant for others. One cultivates a taste for luxury under such
conditions, and when six o'clock comes the rôle of grub must seem hard
to the girl who has been the most gorgeous of butterflies all through
the day. One works hard and lives shabbily and is virtuous--but among
the customers for whom one trails silken draperies up and down, up and
down, there are so many who have the fine clothes for their own, who
live luxuriously, gaily, and who do not trouble about that tiresome
virtue. Bernard Shaw is right. It is ill paid in a worldly sense, the
virtue, and if the mannequin has that fact forced upon her by the show
that passes before her--well, it is but one of the lessons of Vanity
Fair. As we have said before, French frocks will have much to answer
for when accounts are summed up.
The mannequins' ball gives to the mannequin at least one opportunity
during the year for playing her rôle of élégante outside the
establishment in which she is employed. For the truly great houses
there is little object in furnishing costumes for this ball, save only
the giving of pleasure to favourite employees, but gorgeous confections
are provided for the occasion, and the spirit of rivalry twixt the
different ateliers runs high.
Sometimes, too, pretty mannequins are commissioned to wear model
frocks at the great racing events or on other occasions when all the
fashionable Parisian world turns out to see and be seen; but as a
general thing, Mademoiselle's sphere of usefulness is limited to the
salons of the firm that employs her. The days are not so dull even
there. All sorts and conditions of women, save only the women without
money, pass in and out. One sees the famous beauties, the most
notorious demi-mondaines, the most celebrated artistes, the princesses
and grand duchesses and queens, the wives of the rich bankers and
manufacturers, the heroine of the latest scandal, the newest love of a
crown prince, the American of fabulous millions,--the mannequin knows
them all, so does the saleswoman, so does the page who opens the door,
and the procession is an amusing one for onlookers who have the key
to its humours. Ah, the very walls are saturated with gossip in the
salons where Fashion makes her headquarters, and when an old customer
disappears, when a new luminary arises, even the curtains flutter with
interest and conjecture.
Stars of a certain type rise and set swiftly in Paris. Of a sudden,
there is a new sensation. Some woman by force of beauty, wit,
diablerie, sheer audacity, has caught the public eye. All Paris talks
of her, men pour fortunes into her grasping little hands. She eats and
drinks and is exceedingly merry. Her jewels are a proverb, her costumes
beggar description, her sables would do credit to an empress. She has
her handsome house, her horses, her carriages, her servants. Wherever
she goes she is the cynosure of all eyes, and then--Pouf! she is with
the snows of yesteryear. Paris has a new sensation. La belle Margot?
Oh, yes; she had _un succès fou_, but that was yesterday.
"Where is Felise?" asked an American who had not been in Paris since
the season two years earlier, when Felise was the lionne of the day.
The Frenchman to whom he spoke shrugged his shoulders.
"Ah, mon ami, how can one tell?--picking rags for aught I know,--but
have you seen Suzanne? Ravissante, mon chèr! Paris is at her feet."
They are good customers of the dressmaker when they are on the crest
of the wave--these creatures of a day, whom the French misname "filles
de joie." When their day is over and their credit is gone there is an
entry in the black book. The familiar carriage appears no more at the
door--but there are other carriages, other customers to take the vacant
place. The performance is a continuous one in Vanity Fair.
There are fine distinctions made in regard to the customers who flock
to the famous dressmaking establishments. Not for everyone are the
choicest models brought to light. These are for the delectation of the
elect, for known and cherished customers, for others whose custom is a
thing greatly to be desired.
Not until she is sure that the visitor is worthy of the lure does the
saleswoman order the mannequin to show these exclusive models. She is
eternally vigilant and can recognize a dressmaker in search of ideas
rather than of frocks, or a woman moved by curiosity rather than by a
desire to buy, as far as she can see her. There are many such visitors
and they are treated civilly, but they see little for their pains and
they are not encouraged to linger.
Then there is the woman of one frock, the casual tourist who is seeing
the sights of Paris and feels that she will not have completed her
programme satisfactorily unless she takes at least one French frock
home with her. She is not received with effusion, rather with a
good-natured tolerance, yet the saleswoman's manner toward her is far
warmer than that accorded to the visitor with no intention of buying.
In the course of the year, these small orders, a vast majority of
which are placed by Americans, foot up to an imposing sum total, and
the saleswoman is too shrewd a business woman to underestimate the
importance of small things.
What does Madame want? An evening gown, a dinner gown, a visiting gown,
a street frock? Madame, somewhat embarrassed, thinks she would like a
nice all-around dress, something dressy, but not too dressy, a dress to
wear to luncheon or afternoon tea or theatre or--
"Parfaitement,--a gown utile. Marie, the grey crêpe; Elise, put on the
black and white silk."
"Too youthful? But no, Madame. It is of a sobriety that grey crêpe.
Madame is even too young for so serious a costume, but--since she does
not wish anything conspicuous--The grey suits Madame's complexion and
figure to perfection. It will serve for occasions of all kinds, and it
is chic, très chic. The friends of Madame will recognize at once that
it is of Paris. The sleeve is all that there is of the latest, and the
skirt--Madame will observe how the skirt hangs. It is our newest skirt.
Madame will be satisfied--oh, of a surety."
And Madame buys the frock or orders one made like the model. She
has been shown little else, but then the saleswoman is clever
enough to have brought out at the start something that would
actually be suitable and becoming, so, though overawed and robbed of
self-assertion, the unimportant customer probably fares better than if
she had been shown many models and left to her own devices.
Then, of a sudden, there is a stir in the entry, the door opens, a
woman elegantly gowned, aristocratic of air, sweeps into the salon.
The saleswoman's face is wreathed in smiles of welcome, her air is
eager, deferential. Madame la Princesse wishes to see Monsieur? But,
certainly. He shall be called. In the meantime, if there is anything
one can show?
Mannequins are sent flying for the best models and a long file of the
young women promenades through the room wearing frocks in which the
illustrious customer may be interested. Monsieur comes out from the
inner fastnesses and declares himself enchanted, honoured; materials
are brought out and displayed, trimmings are suggested. The interview
is a very serious one. No smallest word of the Princess is treated
lightly. A beggarly dozen of frocks, all extravagant in price, are
planned. A few costly furs are thrown in for good measure. The Princess
rises languidly. Monsieur himself accompanies her to the door, and in
the hall she passes La Petite Fleurette, who has danced herself into
notoriety and into the heart of the Prince whose name and title Madame
la Princesse bears. Evidently this is to be an expensive day for his
Royal Highness.
Fleurette, too, is received with smiles, with effusive greetings. The
credit of his Royal Highness is excellent. Monsieur stops on his way
to his private rooms and returns to greet the danseuse. His manner to
her is not what it was to the Princess. Quite as cordial, yes; but
more familiar. The grave deference has disappeared. The saleswoman,
too, is familiar. She calls the customer "ma chère" and "ma petite,"
flatters her openly, jests with her. The best in the cases is brought
out for Fleurette as for the Princess, but it is a best of a more
striking type, and the master artist's suggestions are not those he
made to the Princess. One is always an artist, but one caters to the
individual. Where Madame la Princesse has ordered a dozen gowns, la
petite Fleurette orders a score, and when she goes Monsieur accompanies
her also to the door, but as he turns he shrugs his shoulders.
"Oh la, la!" says the saleswoman, vulgarly, expressively, as she meets
his eyes, and a buzz of conversation sounds from the corner where the
mannequins are gathered.
The popular danseuse, chanteuse, diseuse, of the Fleurette type is
usually a more profitable customer in her private capacity than is
the great actress. She is the fad, the sensation of the moment, and
her money comes easily and plentifully. No ambitious productions, no
expensive theatrical experiments, eat up her income. Her art is not
of the kind that absorbs her thoughts and hopes and dreams. It is a
means to an end, and that end is gay and luxurious living. So la petite
Fleurette spends her money prodigally in self-indulgence, and much of
it goes to swell the profits of those alluring establishments on the
Rue de la Paix and the Place Vendôme. Other chanteuses and diseuses
there are in Paris who take their art as seriously as Bernhardt
takes hers, and who make it, in its own way, as truly an art; but
here again one finds women too deeply interested in their work to
take an absorbing interest in chiffons. They may dress well, but not
extravagantly well; and beside the splendours of Fleurette their mild
sartorial radiance will seem dim indeed.
Of the actresses who stand at the head of their profession in Paris,
Réjane is probably the best dressed, spends the most money for her
personal and unofficial adornment. She loves pretty frocks and she
wears them well, off the stage as on it; but even she does not rival
in her toilettes certain lesser lights of the stage, for whom, in her
capacity as artiste, she may well feel a good-natured contempt.
It is when the famous actress appears in a new play that she becomes
important in the dressmaking world. Then, if you please, she is
extravagant, exacting, full of whims. Then she and her chosen
dressmaker have long and strenuous conferences, at which the most
able assistants of the master artist are present with suggestion and
advice. The play must be gravely, exhaustively considered. If it deals
with some historic period, the fashions of that period must be studied
down to their merest detail and adapted to present needs. The physical
characteristics of the actress must have due attention. She must be
made to look her best,--but the psychological subtleties of her rôle
must also be taken into account in the planning of her costumes. Oh
they are grave, very grave, the preliminary consultations concerning
the costumes for a new and important rôle. Day after day, Réjane drives
up to the door, behind her white mules, and is closeted with the master
and his chosen aids. There are sketches, crinoline models, materials
to be viewed and discussed, high converse to be held concerning points
upon which artiste and artist are not at one. Then come fittings by
the dozen, with Monsieur looking on, and the heads of the departments
called in to receive orders or suggest improvements. The skirt drapery
does not fall as it should. Madame shakes her head. Monsieur knits his
brows.
"Ask Renoir to come here." The chief skirt hand appears.
"Tu vois, Renoir, ça ne va pas. It is a horror, that drapery. I have
the air of a femme des Halles, n'est-ce pas?"
Renoir goes down upon her knees, rips a stitch here and there, gathers
the material up in her quick fingers. A touch, a fold, a lifting here,
a dropping there, while everyone watches anxiously.
The skirt takes on new lines, Madame looks over her shoulder at her
reflection in the mirror, and her frown melts into a smile.
"Mais oui, c'est ça."
Monsieur smooths his furrowed brow, and the skirtmaker endeavours to
look modest as she hurries back to the workroom, but she is proud,
extremely proud. It is something to surmount serious difficulties
under the eye of the master.
There is perhaps a miniature stage in one of the fitting-rooms,--a tiny
stage, but large enough for a solitary figure in sweeping draperies,
and lighted by footlights as is a real stage. So much depends upon
those footlights. They may ruin totally the effect of a frock lovely
under ordinary light, just as they will make the most perfect natural
complexion look cadaverous, and the stage costume must be planned with
reference to this problem of lighting.
Many dressmakers care little for the theatrical custom and seldom
make stage costumes save when a modern society play is in question,
but other houses cater largely to the stage trade. Doucet makes more
of the costumes worn on the Parisian stage than any other one maker,
but Redfern has had great success in that line, and Drecoll, too, has
costumed some famous rôles, while, when it comes to the modern society
play, actresses turn to any one of the autocrats who finds most favour
with them.
The première of an important production always brings out, if not the
great dressmakers themselves, at least their official representatives,
whose task it is to garner fashion ideas wherever they are to be found.
Even a period play may furnish some idea in colour, line, or detail
that may be adapted to modern dress and inspire a new mode, and the
elaborately costumed modern play is always interesting to students of
the modes. Sometimes an actress wears a new and original frock that
catches the fancy of Parisiennes and launches a mode, but, in general,
the stage frock's influence is limited to the inspiring of ideas for
modes rather than to the setting of fashions, and the stage trade is
not of great importance in the great game of fashion-making.
Professional buyers fill the salons at certain seasons of the year,
and are to be reckoned with seriously in the business calculations of
Monsieur.
In early spring and late summer dressmakers and buyers from all parts
of the world set their faces toward Paris, but by far the largest
element of the pilgrimage is American. Every dressmaker of pretensions
to-day makes her trips to Paris at least twice a year, views the
advance season models, buys as many of them as she can, lays in a
supply of exclusive materials and trimmings, and fills her note-book
with ideas to be used for the benefit of her home customers. Often
during her summer trip she takes a run to Trouville and to other
Normandy resorts where the tide of fashion is at its highest as the
summer draws to a close; and, in the late winter or early spring, the
Riviera is a famous hunting-ground for fashions.
Before March brings the Auteuil races, Paris is, in the eyes of the
ultra-chic, a wilderness. Women charmingly gowned may be there. The
uninitiated may believe that the latest creations of the French
dressmakers' art are on view. The elect know better. They understand
that the gowns being worn in Paris before March are the gowns of
yesteryear. They understand, too, that, all through the Paris winter,
spring modes are having their trial, but that this trial is going on
in far-away summer lands. The women who launch the modes, the exclusive
few who set the fashion, are already wearing toilettes that will serve
as models to the general public when spring comes, but they are wearing
them at the winter resorts, each of which has its distinct season for
the European smart set, and it is not until Auteuil calls fashionable
folk back to Paris that the stay-at-homes know what is upon Fashion's
spring programme.