Ballets Russes Style

Diaghilev's Dancers and Paris Fashion

Mary E. Davis

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781861897572
• eBook ISBN: 9781861898852
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Fashion Design

In the two decades between its debut performance and the death of impresario Sergei Diaghilev in 1929, the Ballets Russes was an unrivalled sensation in Paris and around the world. But while scholarly attention has often centered on the links between Diaghilev's troupe and modernist art and music, there has been surprisingly little analysis of the Ballets' role in the area of tastemaking and trendsetting. Ballets Russes Style addresses this gap, revealing the extent of the ensemble's influence in arenas of high style—including fashion, interior design, advertising, and the decorative arts.

In Ballets Russes Style, Mary E. Davis explores how the Ballets Russes performances were a laboratory for ambitious cultural experiments, often grounded in the aesthetic confrontation of Russian artists who traveled with the troupe from St. Petersburg—Bakst, Benois, and Stravinsky among them—and the Parisian avant-garde, including Picasso, Matisse, Derain, Satie, Debussy, and Ravel. She focuses on how the ensemble brought the stage and everyday life into direct contact, most noticeably in the world of fashion. The Ballets Russes and its audience played a key role in defining Paris style, which would echo in fashions throughout the century.

Beautifully illustrated, and drawing on unpublished images and memorabilia, this book illuminates the ways in which the troupe's innovations in dance, music, and design mirrored and invigorated contemporary culture.

References

Preface

1 Bernadine Morris, ‘Diaghilev Inspires Saint Laurent’, New York Times, 26 July 1979, p. 1.

2 Diana Vreeland, ‘Introduction’, Diaghilev: Costumes and Designs of the Ballets Russes, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1978).

3 Richard Buckle, letter to Howard Rothschild, 9 May 1954.

4 Cecil Beaton, The Glass of Fashion (London, 1954), p. 99.

5 Roy Strong, ‘Richard Buckle’ (obituary), The Guardian, 13 October 2001.

6 Anna Winestein, ‘The Ballets Russes on the Auction Block’, in Alston Purvis, Peter Rand and Anna Winestein, eds, The Ballets Russes and the Art of Design (New York, 2009), p. 184.

7 Richard Buckle, ‘Introduction’, Costumes and Curtains from the Diaghilev and de Basil Ballets (New York, 1972), p. xiii.

8 Ibid., p. v.

9 Alexander Schouvaloff, The Art of the Ballets Russes: The Serge Lifar Collection of Theater Designs, Costumes and Paintings at the Wadsworth Atheneum (New Haven, CT, 1998), pp. 32–3.

10 ‘Hapsburg Splendor at the Met’, New York Times, 25 November 1979, p. 145.

11 George Dorris, ‘Looking at Dance History: Three Exhibitions’, Dance Chronicle, III/2 (1978), p. 238.

12 Stella Blum, [Curator’s Note], in Diaghilev: Costumes and Designs of the Ballets Russes, n.p.

13 Eugenia Sheppard, ‘Vreeland Exhibits at Metropolitan Latest Costumes’, Palm Beach Daily News, 27 November 1978, p. 2.

14 Ibid. 234

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 Suzy Menkes, ‘An Exotic Perfume: Ballets Russes Still Setting Fashion Pace’, New York Times, 13 February 1996.

18 Suzy Menkes, ‘Paris Fashion: Defiant Galliano Conjures Exotic Fantasy’, New York Times, 22 January 2002.

19 Ibid.

20 Anne Christensen, ‘NYFW: Something for Everybody’, T Magazine Blog, New York Times, 24 September 2009.

21 Nicole Phelps, ‘Spring 2009 Ready-to Wear: Marc Jacobs’, Style.com, 8 September 2008.

22 Sarah Mower, ‘Runway Review: Chanel’, Style.com, 3 December 2008.

1 Paris

1 Mill Cessan, ‘La Saison d’Opéra et de Ballet Russes au Châtelet’, Comœdia illustré, 15 May 1909, p. 282.

2 Ibid.

3 See Jann Passler, ‘Countess Greffuhle as Entrepreneur’, in The Musician as Entrepreneur, 1700–1914: Managers, Charlatans and Idealists, ed. William Weber (Bloomington, IN, 2004), pp. 221–56.

4 See Sylvia Kahan, Music’s Modern Muse: A Life of Winaretta Singer (Rochester, NY, 2003).

5 See Arthur Gold and Robert Fitzdale, Misia: The Life of Misia Sert (New York, 1980).

6 Gaston de Pawlowski (1874–1933), a lawyer, founded the Union Vélocycloédique de France and directed the newspapers Le Vélo and L’Opinion in addition to Comœdia. He authored the satiric text Les Nouvelles Inventions de M. de Pawlowski and the science-fiction novel Journey to the Land of the Fourth Dimension. See Luc Ferry, trans. Robert de Laoiza, Homo aestheticus: The Invention of Taste (Chicago, 1993), pp. 218–19.

7 Gaston de Pawlowski, ‘La Cadette’, Comœdia illustré, 15 December 1908, n.p.

8 André Marty, ‘Miss Isadora Duncan et son école d’enfants’, Comœdia illustré, 1 February 1909, pp. 122–3.

9 Mill Cessan, ‘La Saison d’opéra et de Ballets Russes au Châtelet’, Comœdia illustré, 15 May 1909, pp. 282–4.

10 Mill Cessan, ‘La Saison russe’, Comœdia illustré, 1 June 1909, p. 304.

11 Cerdannes, ‘La Saison russe’, Comœdia illustré, 15 June 1909, p. 333.

12 Ibid. See also Théophile Gautier, ‘Une Nuit de Cléopâtre’, in Le Roman de la Momie (Paris, 1960), p. 7.

13 ‘Natacha Trouhanova’, Comœdia illustré, 15 June 1909, pp. 336–7.

14 André Marty, ‘Encore les Ballets Russes’, Comœdia illustré, 15 August 1909, pp. 459–61.

15 Charles Malherbe, ‘ Une Cantatrice compositeur: Mme Marguerite Casalonga’, Comœdia illustré, 15 January 1909, ...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• one Paris
• two Russia
• three The East
• four The Ancient World
• five The Modern World
• References
• Acknowledgements
• Photo Acknowledgements
• Index