Ballets Russes Style

Diaghilev's Dancers and Paris Fashion

Mary E. Davis, Davis, Mary E.

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781861897572
• eBook ISBN:
  9781861898852
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Fashion Design

In the decades between its debut performance in Paris in 1909 and the death of impresario Sergei Diaghilev in 1929, the Ballets Russes was an unrivaled sensation not only in France but in London, New York and the other cities it toured. Attention has often been centred on the links between Diaghilev's troupe and modernist art and music, but there has been surprisingly little written concerning the Ballets’ role in tastemaking and trendsetting. Ballets Russes Style reveals for the first time the full extent of the ensemble's influence on haute couture.

The Ballets Russes' seasons were an exciting laboratory for ambitious cultural experiments, often grounded in the aesthetic confrontation of those great designers, artists and composers who travelled with the troupe from St Petersburg – Léon Bakst, Alexandre Benois and Igor Stravinsky among them - and Paris's avant-garde, which included Picasso, Satie, Matisse, Debussy and Ravel. The ensemble brought the stage and everyday life into creative contact with each other, most noticeably in the world of fashion. In its heyday, the Ballets Russes was a potent force in defining Paris Style, bringing the work of great designers such as Jeanne Paquin and Coco Chanel to the stage, and creating sensibilities that resonated in the collections of couturiers from Paul Poiret to Yves Saint Laurent and beyond.

Beautifully illustrated and drawing on unpublished images and memorabilia, this book illuminates the ways in which innovations by the Ballets Russes in dance, music, sets and costume both mirrored and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