Re: The Empress Alexandra Fights Back #3

[De Toilette]

There is one final theme, De Toilette that will complete the September 1915 correspondence which I will post in the next few days. 

The theme came about in the following manner.  For the first time in the War correspondence, the Empress repeatedly mentions that she needs time to dress for Church or other occasions and as these remarks occur about six or seven times, I felt that they deserved a theme of their own. 

Once I isolated them into their own theme, I remembered how time consuming dressing was in that late Edwardian era, even with the introduction of the less complex corsets and gowns of the period.  I then thought that the theme could be expanded to include a glimpse into some of the sartorial changes and the liberalization of society's modes and manners that had occurred just before the Great War and that had continued to accelerate during the conflict. 

It occurred to me that by expanding the theme De Toilette, we might be able to better understand the assault on Victorian idealism and piety that was being waged by the emerging "modern" values during the Great War.  Again, I think it will become clear that the liberalization of social values contributed to the growing dislike of the Empress, who was increasingly seen by the smart element of Court Society as a retrograde exponent of stuffy, outmoded Victorian virtues.  I can't help wondering if this social friction was not the major underling factor of the contempt the young Grand Duchess Marie felt for Empress. 

Well anyway I just have to download a few more pictures of fashion changes and then I will be ready to post De Toilette.

 

[De Toilette]

I thought it would really be fun to explore the some of the sartorial and social changes from 1908 to 1915 as historic context for the last theme De Toilette of September 1915 war correspondence.  I have not included the Russian influence on the fashions after the advent of the premiere performance of the Ballets Russes in Paris in Season of 1909, nor impact of Leon Bakst’s designs on French courtier, Paul Poiret as that would require a whole theme of its own. 

ALIX AND NICKY’S WARTIME CORRESPONDENCE

SEPTEMBER 1, 1915 — SEPTEMBER 22, 1915

Once a rumour, however false, becomes the subject of common belief, it assumes the status of political fact, informing the attitudes and actions of the public…what gave these rumours their potential as a unifying belief...was the fact that they were endorsed by the Duma leaders, and indeed by conservatives. 
Orlando Figes and Boris Kolonitskii

DE TOILETTE    

Letter No. 113. Tsarskoje Selo, Sept. 5-th 1915
- I must get up & have my hair done before Botkin,

Letter No. 115. Tsarskoje Selo, Sept. 7-th 1915
– I must fly & dress,

Letter No. 115. Tsarskoje Selo, Sept. 7-th 1915
Now I must dress for Church. 

Letter No. 116. Tsarskoje Selo, Sept. 8-th 1915
I must dress for Church. 

Letter No. 125.  Tsarskoje Selo, Sept. 17th 1915
– Now I must quickly get up & dress for the service of old Arseniev.

Letter No. 127. Tsarskoje Selo, Sept. 19th 1915
 – I must end now & dress for Church. 


•    The Time It Took To Dress In the Late Edwardian Period

This is the first time in the War Correspondence, as I recall, that the Empress makes reference for the time that she needed in order to dress. We tend to forget how much time it took to dress in that period, even after fashions had become less complex, as they had by 1915. 

It was not until the introduction of zipper in 1919 that gowns could be easily gotten into and out of.  However the center back or side zipper openings would not come into common usage until the 1930’s and snaps and hooks were the only way gowns fastened even during the 1920’s.  Added to the complexities of dressing in the 1915, gowns had openings that were disguised under layers of lace and/or panels of chiffon or silk so that the actual closing would be invisible.  Finding the right position of snaps on the various layers of chiffon and lace was not only time consuming but often extremely difficult as this illustration from June 1907 “Picking from Puck” proves.



“Three missing snaps.”  Illustration from “Picking from Puck.”  June 1907


We get a glimpse of the time it took to dress in 1914 from passages in Princess Trubetskoia’s novel, Land’s End, (1914).  Whilst the novel’s hero, Owen, was having tea at a smart restaurant with his friend Mary, she happened to glance:

...down at her watch, and sprang up quite horrified, saying that she would have only twenty minutes to dress for dinner and that her gown had two tunics and a sash with fifty hooks.  [Ref: Amélie  Rives (Princess Troubetzkoy), World’s-End, (1914), p. 27] 


•   1907 – 1908:  The Advent of the “Sheath Gown” and “Merry Widow”   

The simpler lines of the neo-classic gowns popular just before the Great War, styles so familiar to us from the Tercentenary photographs of the Empress’ daughters, found their origin with the “Directoire” inspired “Sheath gown” that had been first seen on the London Stage in the summer of 1907 with the smash-hit production of Basil Hood and Adrian Ross adaptation of Franz Lehár’s 1906 light operetta, The Merry Widow. 

When the star of the operetta, Lily Elsie appeared on stage in the new “Sheath gown” and large picture hat that had been designed for her the talented courtier, Lady Duff Gordon, the fashionable world immediately had the gown and large be-feathered picture hat copied.  Immediately those large picture hats became known as the “Merry Widow” hat.


 
Lily Elsie “Sheath gown” and hat created by Lucile for her staring role in the operetta, “The Merry Widow.”  June 1907

The new trend was established as a fashion trend in the season of 1908 when Lady Duff Gordon [ Lucile] and the French couture houses such as Poiret, Worth, Paquin [the courtier who created Ella’s deaconess robes from the designs of Russian artist Michael Nesterov], introduced the “Sheath Gown” and “Merry Widow” hat at the Races in Paris. 



The “Sheath Gown” and "Merry Widow" hat,  Races, Paris.  1908 


The shocking aspect of the gown was that Poiret and Lucile featured the gown with the new light weight elastic girdle there allowing the clinging lines of the gown to reveal the movement of the feminine form in a far less guarded manner than steel-boned corsets had allowed.   


 
The “Sheath Gown” amd "Merry Widow hat, Races, New York.  1908.


When the new “Directoire” gown made its first appearance in the States in 1908, the outrage it caused was so great that a lady shopping in Chicago in the new gown had to be protected by the police from the “jeering insulting crowd” that had gathered around her. 

American comics quipped: “The sheath gown uncovers a multitude of sins.”  There was even a popular song dedicated to the new fashion that ran: 

“Katie Keith, she wears a sheath
With very little underneath.”  [Ref: Mark Sullivan, Our Times: Pre-War America,, 1930, p. 547]

In Connecticut, the ultra smart gentleman’s club, Haute Ton Whist and Literary Club, declared war on the innovation and ruled "that the sheath gown was one big step backward toward the fig-leaf,” and voted that "the sheath gown is both immodest and homely and this club will do everything in its power to put it down.”  [Ref: Mark Sullivan, Our Times: Pre-War America,, 1930, p. 548]

The “Merry Widow” hat also came under attack for the abundance of bird feathers that were required to adorn it:

"Ten gorgeous little father birds were killed to trim the hat with; ten somber little mother birds were left sitting on their nests with nobody to feed them—and the hat was called the Merry Widow." Life (November, 1908.)  [Ref: Mark Sullivan, Our Times: Pre-War America,, 1930, p. 548]

 
Fashion illustration of “Sheath Gown” and "Merry Widow" hat.  1909


It took me by surprise that before the “Sheath gown” and “Merry Widow” hat had made their fashion Début at the Races in Paris in June 1908, the young Empress was already wearing the new style in late May of 1908, when she and Nicky hosted the King and Queen of England’s visit aboard their yacht, the Standard, at Revel.     


 
The Empress with Queen Alexandra and Princess Victoria, Revel, May 27-28, 1908

[The Ideal of the Mature Woman Continues to Dominate Fashion]

It is interesting to note that the Empress Dowager did not embrace the new fashions nor the new hats and clung to a modified versions of tailor-made gowns and smaller hats that she and her sister, Queen Alexandra of England, had made so popular in the 1890’s.  One can still see the remnants of that period in the cut of the Empress Dowager's dress and her hat during the 1908 visit of her sister and brother-in-law in Revel. 




 
Empress Dowager, Edward VII, and Queen Alexandra, Revel, May 1908


•   The Ideal of the Mature Woman Continues to Dominate Fashion

Even though the sliming neoclassic lines of the new “Directoire” gown created a more youthful appearance by eliminated the curvaceous hips and thighs that been highlighted by the late Victorian and early Edwardian fashion ideal of the mature woman, the “Sheath gown” still embraced ideal of the mature woman and promised to turn the immature figure of any society girl into the regal appearance of a 30-something matron. 

A perfect example of this transformation is found in Princess Troubetzkoy’ s 1914 novel, Worlds-End,.  The young heroine, Phoebe who has just married the book’s hero, Owen, has barred her new husband from seeing her dress for dinner as she wants to surprise him with her new gown: 

(Phoebe)  “I can’t let you in now, dear.  But I’m almost dressed.  I’ll be ready before the others.”

(Owen)  “Never mind sweetheart.  I only wanted to know what you are going to wear.”

(Phoebe)  “It’s a new gown.”  A faint little laugh came through the crack in the door. “  You’ve never seen it.  Black and silver.  I want to look very dignified and matronly.”

(Owen)  “May it add ten summers to your ripe age!”  [Ref: Amélie  Rives (Princess Troubetzkoy), World’s-End, (1914), p. 315] 


 
Land’s End title page.  Illustration of the novel’s heroine, “Phoebe” by Alonzo Kimball. 1914


De Toilette continued


One can truly grasp the transforming power and maturing effect on youth when one compares the 16 year old Duchess of Windsor, looking 30 years old, wearing an afternoon “Sheath gown” and “Merry Widow” hat in 1909; with 24 year old Duchess of Windsor in 1918, looking her own age, in an afternoon gown inspired by the new “youth cult” fashion mode which idealized the teenage girl.   


 
The 16 year old Duchess of Windsor wearing a “Sheath Gown.” 1909


 
The 24 year old Duchess of Windsor looking her younger than her age.  1918

[De Toilette continued]

De Toilette continued


•   1907: Elinor Glyn’s Novel Three Weeks, and its Impact on The Russian Court

Simultaneously in the Summer Season of 1907, that had seen the introduction of the “Sheath gown” and “Merry Widow” hat which Lady Duff Gordon had designed for Lily Elsie who starred in the mash-hit operetta, the Marry Widow , the publication of the first sex-novel of the twentieth century, Three Weeks, which had been written by Lucile Duff Gordon’s sister, the novelist, Elinor Glyn appeared.  The shock the book created on the Edwardian sensibilities of the day is hard for us to comprehend today as the book seems mild if not maudlin to the sophisticated values of today. 



The Cover of Three Weeks.  1907


Elinor Glyn’s racy novel, Three Weeks was the uncensored story of a passionate and mysterious “Balkan  Queen” who traveled through Europe incognito in search of a young British lover to sire an heir with.  The Queen desired that the child’s father be a British aristocrat, thereby assuring that with this heritage the child would mount the throne of her brutal husband and reform the barbaric country’s rule.   

During her travels in Europe the Queen spotted the perfect young British aristocrat, Paul, the son of Lord and Lady Verdayne.  Having arrived at the same German Spa, the Queen soon seduced the young Lord and spent three weeks with him.  The Queen then disappeared as mysteriously as she had appeared in Paul’s life.  Returning to her country, she gave birth to a son who she knew, with his British heritage flowing in his veins, would rule his country with equity and justice unlike her husband, the brutal and barbaric King.  The Queen knew that her husband the King would be forced to accept the paternity of the child as the birth of a male heir would stabilize his shaky throne.  However the Queen also knew that it would only be a matter of time before brutal and barbaric husband would kill her in one of his fits of rage.     

Though Paul languished in a state of despair and grief after the disappearance of his “mysterious” lover, he eventually learned of her identity and that she had given birth to their child.  Then he learned that the Queen had died at the hand of her husband.  However shortly afterward the King died and when Paul’s son was five years old, the Regent invited Paul to come and meet the young heir.  This meeting restored Paul’s spirit and he realized how sacred his romance had been with the Queen who had sacrificed everything to ensure her country’s future by the liberal rule of her British son.   

It is not until the end of Three Weeks that the reader learns the nationality of the mysterious “Balkan Queen” who had become Paul’s lover.  In a conversation with Paul’s father, Lord Charles Verdayne, the close family Captain Grigsby who helped Paul learn the true identity of his “Queen”, explained the origin of the Royal lady.  Captain Grigsby confided that finally he had discovered that the Queen was actually an Empress:

“...she was Russian,” Captain Grigsby said after talking some time, “and the rest was easy to find out.  We’re not here to judge the morals of affair, Charles; you and I can only be thundering glad your grandson will sit on that throne all right.”

He had read in one paper—he proceeded to say—that a most difficult political situation has been avoided by the birth of this child, as there was no possible heir at all, and immense complications would ensue upon the death of the present ruler...the King had taken the chief part in rejoicings over the heir, so there was nothing to be said.  [Ref: Elinor Glyn, Three Weeks, (1907), p. 211]



Aileen Pringle and Conrad Nagel embracing in a scene from the MGM silent film, Three Weeks. (released in 1924).  Photo credit, Goldwyn Photo-Play 1923 


It is not surprising that Elinor Glyn’s Three Weeks had:

......one further consequence, which was again not entirely unexpected.  The rumour went about that it was, in fact, a true story.  Several men announced that they were Paul ; one man in America called himself Prince Paul, thereby showing that he had not read the book.  It was also reported that the Czar had mentioned Three Weeks as being a book about his wife.   [Ref: Anthony Glyn, Elinor Glyn: A Biography, (1955), p. 139]

And if we can trust Iliodor which is always a risk, it appears that even Rasputin claimed to be Paul.  Writing with a melodramatic flair that would have made Elinor Glyn proud, the "Mad Monk" informs us that during an intimate conversation Gregory:

...paused; wrinkles appeared on his forehead. He bit his nail, and it was evident something great was going on in his soul.  Then he suddenly gave a start and turned his head to me.  His cheeks flushed, a strange, feverish fire lit up his eyes, and he said precipitately,

“And do you know, do you know, it was I—I who gave them an heir.”

“How so?” I asked.

He explained himself clearly, and suddenly ran out of the cell, and in great agitation paced to and fro on the balcony for a long while.  [Ref: Sergei Michailovich Trufanoff, The Mad Monk of Russia, Iliodor, (1918), p. 147]

The book not only scandalized Russian Court Society and sent a flurry of rumours about the paternity of Alexis which were added to the Grand Duchess Militsa was already spreading rumours of Moral Corruption about the Empress and Ania Vyrubova. 

More importantly the publication of Three Weeks, split the Polite World in half; one half found the book an outrage, while the other half approved the book’s liberal views and felt that they represented values appropriate for the modern woman. 

Such scion’s of British society as Lady Arthur Paget and the Duchess of Abercorn endorsed the Elinor’s novel, whilst in America the famous novelist, Mark Twain wrote in favor of Three Weeks and shielded the work from attack by declaring:
 
...that so great a love was divine and beyond human control or law.  [Ref: Anthony Glyn, Elinor Glyn: A Biography, (1955), p. 137]

While the book was banned widely, still, it made record sales and with the introduction of the paperback edition in 1916 the sales of the book skyrocketed. 

I can't help but be amazed about how the Empress continued to fascinate novelists from the moment she mounted the throne, with Richard Harding Davis, novel of her, "Aline," (1895) to Elinor Glyn's suggestive portrait of her in Three Weeks, (1907).  For such a retiring and modest woman, all this notoriety must have been terribly vexing, to say the least.  And of course it is only fair to point out that the young Empress was not the model for the Russian Empress in Three Weeks as it was surely a portrait of the authoress herself. 

[De Toilette continued]

De Toilette continued

Three Weeks was burlesqued in the 1915 film, Pimple’s Three Weeks, and Elinor took the film company to court.  When Judge Younger, who ruled against Elinor Glyn in favor of the Western Feature Film Company in December 1915, he published his ruling which became the credo that conservative members of society rallied around. 

The Judge stated that:

The episode described in the plaintiff’s novel, which she alleges has been pirated by the defendants, is in my opinion, grossly immoral both in its essence, and its treatment and its tendency.  Stripped of its trappings which are mere accident, it is nothing more nor less than a sensual, adulterous intrigue.  And it is not as if the plaintiff in her account of it were content to excuse or palliate the conduct described.  She has stooped to glorify the liaison, both in its inception, it progress and its results and she has not hesitated to garnish it with meretricious incident at every turn. Now, it is clear that copyright cannot exist in a work of a tendency so grossly immoral as this; a work which, apart from its other objectionable features, advocates free love and justifies adultery where the marriage tie has become merely irksome. 

We are constantly hearing of the injurious influences exercised upon the adventurous spirit of our youth by the “penny dreadful” which presents the burglar in the guise of a hero.  So is a mischievous, glittering record of adulterous sensuality, masquerading as superior virtue, such as we find in this book, calculated to mislead, with the consequences as certain as they are sure to be disastrous, into the belief that she may without dishonour choose the easy life of sin, many a poor romantic girl, striving amidst manifold hardships and discouragements to keep her honour untarnished.  It is enough for me to say that to a book of such a cruelly destructive tendency no protection will be extended by a court of equity.  It rests with others to determine whether such a work ought to be altogether suppressed.   [Ref: Anthony Glyn, Elinor Glyn: A Biography, (1955), pp. 135-136]

We also know from Ella’s biographer, Christopher Warwick, that Elinor Glyn’s earlier and less sensational The Visits of Elizabeth had penetrated the Russian Court and was being secretly read by the young and rebellious Grand Duchess Marie who wrote a friend in 1906:

‘The Visits of Elizabeth is a delightful book,’...‘But Aunty of course does not know I have got it.  And she will not know!  She has said very often “that there is a book by Glyn which you can’t read, it’s not for young girls” and once she mentioned its name, Ha ha, and I have got the very book which is not for “young girls.”  [Ref: Christopher Warwick, Ella, Princess, Saint & Martyr, (2006), p. 230]

One can safely surmise that the Grand Duchess Marie must have read The Weeks as well when it was published in the summer of 1907, as did the Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna Sr. and her entire family including her daughter-in-law, the Grand Duchess Victoria Melita. 

The Grand Duchess Vladimir was so enchanted with the authoress of Three Weeks, that in the summer of 1909 when they met in Carlsbad whilst taking a cure, the Grand Duchess invited Elinor Glyn to come to St. Petersburg in order to write a novel about the Russian Court which Elinor did in 1910 with the publication of His Hour..     



The cover of His Hour.  1910


Like an echo of a once magnificent period, His Hour, eventually became a movie and was released in 1925 with Eileen Pringle and John Gilbert in the staring roles.  It is hard to realize that only fifteen years separated the publication of book in 1910 from it adaptation as a screen play for the movie in 1925.  So much more than fifteen years divided that period during which an entire civilization, an entire culture, and entire national heritage vanished.   



Tribute to the Grand Duchess Vladimir, His Hour, 1910


I will post the "Dance Craze" tomorrow which will complete the social historic context for our period and just to note that the dance craze will include social and fashion trends in 1915 and a glimpse of where the Empress stood in relation to the new social and sartorial innovations.     

[De Toilette continued]

De Toilette continued


•   THE ADVENT OF THE HOBBLE SKIRT 1910 – 1913





The “Hobble Skirt,”  Lucile Fashion show.  1910


While Empress accepted the new Directoire silhouette of the “Sheath Gown” in 1908 along with it’s accompanying “Merry Widow” hat without modification, when the “Hobble Skirt” was introduced during the season of 1910, the Empress refused to wear the tight pencil skirt.  The “Hobble Skirt” had maintained the same neo classic lines introduced in 1908 with the “Sheath gown” while it narrowed the hem to the point that movement was restricted to taking bird like steps.  Fashionable woman had to wear suspenders from one ankle to another to avoid taking a step that would split the skirt. 


Countess Olga Hohenfelsen [created Princess Paley in 1915], Paris 1912 


When Lili Dehn appeared in the new fashion, she relates that, the Empress, whose taste:

...in dress was as refined as that of Queen Mary of England; like her she disapproved strongly of exaggerated fashions, and I shall not easily forget her condemnation when I once came to see her wearing a "hobble" skirt.

"Do you really like this skirt, Lili?" asked the Empress.

"Well . . . Madame," I said helplessly, "c'est la mode."

"It is no use whatever as a skirt," she answered. "Now, Lili, prove to me that it is comfortable - run, Lili, run, and let me see how fast you can cover the ground in it."

Needless to say, I never wore a "hobble" skirt again.   [Ref: Lili Dehn, The Real Tsarina, Chapter IV,  Alexander Palace Time Machine. Retrieved May 3, 2009, from http: /www.alexanderpalace.org/russiancourt2006/IV.html. ]



“Run Lili, Run.”  Gazette du Bon Ton, Fashion illustration, Pochoir.  1912


However, unlike the Empress Dowager who resisted the new modes and had retired her fashion sense altogether by 1910, the Empress avoided extremes through subtle modifications and thereby maintained a current and up to date appearance. 

Alix gowns during the reign of the “Hobble Skirt” were modified at the hem, whilst still maintaining the new silhouette.  An example of what I am talking about can be seen by comparing the extremely narrow hem of the Lucile dinner gown [below] with a dinner gown cut along the same lines, but with a more generous hem.  The conservative hemline was worn by the Empress during this period, whilst the cut of the gown remained en vogue.     



“Hobble Skirt” Dinner Gown, Lucile.  1912



Modified “Hobble Skirt” Dinner Gown.  1912

It is interesting, however, to note that the Empress’ taste in hats always remained au currant and perfectly reflected the current mode. 



The Empress attired in a double tunic "Hobble Skirt" with modified hem.  1910


I shall post the last two sections of De Toilette: The Dance Craze and the Russian Court: 1912 - 1914 and Styles In Petrograd 1915.
I am sorry that I have not been able to post these last two items today but I am forever changing my mind over which photos should accompany what the text.  Still I do hope that De Toilette is offering a bit of interest to the thread. 

It certainly is, griffh!  Continued thanks!  Know that I keep reading and looking forward to the next installment even when I'm not replying. 

Another thing Alexandra Feodorovna and I have in common - a desire to keep with the current fashion trends, but not the stupid ones.  lol!

It certainly is, griffh!  Continued thanks!  Know that I keep reading and looking forward to the next installment even when I'm not replying. 

Another thing Alexandra Feodorovna and I have in common - a desire to keep with the current fashion trends, but not the stupid ones.  lol!

First off never worry about not replying.  We all have our hands full with a multiude of things and quiet spells only mean lots of things on our plate.   

I didn't realize that your remarks about the sartorial code that you and the Empress share in common was so very British [as Lili Dehn implied] until I read the remarks costume historians, Michael and Ariane Batterberry made, stating that early:

...in the 17th century Sir Frances Bacon likened behaviour to a garment and in so doing revealed the English ideal in both:

     Behavior is the garment of the mind and ought to have the conditions of a garment. For first, it ought to be made in fashion; secondly, it should not be too curious or costly; thirdly, it ought to be so framed as best to set forth any virtue of the mind and supply and hide any deformity;  and lastly, and above all, it ought not to be straight, so as to confine the mind and interfere with its freedom in business and action.  [Ref: Michael and Ariane Batterberry, Mirror, Mirror: A Social History of Fashion, (1977), p. 181]

Bacon's remarks clearly reveal Empress' fashion ethic and yours too.   

And again don't be concerned about not contribuing as we are all up to our ears dealing with deadlines and various responsibilities...

[De Toilette continued• THE DANCE CRAZE AND THE RUSSIAN COURT: 1912 – 1914]

De Toilette continued


•   THE DANCE CRAZE AND THE RUSSIAN COURT: 1912 – 1914


While it is true that Vernon and Irene Castle initiated the “American Dance Craze” that swept the Polite World in 1912 and made public dancing socially acceptable, new dances from America had started to become ultra fashionable and were often preformed at private aristocratic gatherings for the amusement a few years before.   



Vernon and Irene Castle, Paris 1912


Queen Marie of Romania recounts, that around the same season that witnessed the introduction of the neo-classic “Sheath gown,” she experienced one of her greatest social triumphs; which she described as having been the perfect execution of the Boston One-Step, which she preferred to call the Valse-Boston,, with an un-named America gentleman.

It appears that whilst stopping at Daisy Pless’ place in Silesia, Fürstenstein, the Queen’s social triumph had come about in the following manner:

...I paid a visit to Prince and Princess Pless at Fürstenstein, a magnificent palatial dwelling they owned in Silesia...

After the sumptuous evening meal there was generally dancing, and in between the dances we would saunter about the beautiful terraces overlooking a deep wooded valley, for Fürstenstein lies superbly situated on a hill.

One evening I specially remember, my vanity having reaped a great success.  I was clad in a pale pink, silver-bordered gown cut according to Greek lines and on my fair head I wore a classically plain round wreath of roses, a form of head-dress which suited my type of face.  I was conscious, as one occasionally is, of looking my best, and this in itself is stimulating.  There was amongst the guests an American who was an excellent dancer, and we were asked to give a demonstration of the “valse-boston,” [the Boston One-step] then the great fashion. 

My partner and I had the floor to ourselves and we danced as one can only dance when one’s pace is in perfect accord.  I was filled with that special exhilaration which comes from the consciousness of doing a thing well and that an appreciative audience is looking on.  I had the feeling of swimming or flying, and my sliver-bordered dress followed our movements in graceful curves.  I knew that all eyes were upon me and I confess having enjoyed to the full this small triumph so agreeably flattering to my self-esteem.  I have had my share of success in life, but certain occasions stand out more clearly than others.  Being rarely dans le mode où ľ on s’amuse [able to have fun] I was not in the least blasée, all good things came to me with a freshness not to be conceived by those who live in a round of pleasures all the year through.  [Ref: Marie, Queen of Romania, The Story of My Life, (1934), p. 472]



Queen Marie of Romania in Tea gown, Cotroceni Palace, 1907


By 1913 a plethora of American dances and ragtime dance tunes had swept the drawing rooms of Europe the elegant hotels and restaurants of the day started employing society orchestras, often composed of Black American musicians, so the couples could dance during lunch, High Tea, and in the evenings. 



A fashionable Young Couple Dancing the Fox Trot at the Ritz Carlton. 1914


In 1913 the Grand Duke Dimitri met Irene Castle in Paris and immediately fell madly in love with her.  When they met Dimitri was twenty-two and Irene had just turned twenty and Irene’s biographer, Eve Golden, quotes Irene’s memory of dancing with Dimitri as follows:

"When we danced he swooped me around the floor with long steps, leading firmly but carelessly," said Irene, still breathless over him years later. 

Dimitri trailed the Castles around Paris and kidnapped the more than willing Irene for trips to nightclubs, long drives in the country, 4:00 a.m. breakfasts at Maxim’s, and goodness knows what else.  While the unsuspecting (or very good-natured Vernon) visited his family in England, Dimitri agreed to keep Irene “from being lonely.”  He showered her with orchids and jewels from Cartier’s, took her to the opera, and, one night lunged for her in his motorcar.  Irene claimed to have shed a few tears of pretty distress and rushed to her husband in England.

Considering Irene’s very healthy sexual appetite, Dimitri’s dashing good looks, Vernon’s laissez-faire attitude, and the fact that she was still seeing Dimitri a decade later [1923], the possibility certainly exists that Irene, two years into her marriage, was willing to have her head turned.  [Ref: Eve Golden, Vernon and Irene Castle's Ragtime Revolution, (2007), pp. 61-62]



The Grand Duke Dimitri.  Circa 1912


 
Irene Castle circa 1913


Clearly Dimitri learned all the new dances popular just before the Great War from Irene and must have helped introduce them to the Russian Court who was already enamored with the new craze. 

The War did nothing to lessen the rage for dancing and it was during this period that society witnessed the introduction the late afternoon “Tango Teas,” that became the latest rage offered by elegant hotels and leading Restaurants in Petrograd and Moscow.  Before long  Moscow was sporting it’s own “Queen of Tango”, the enchanting Elsa Kruger.     



Elsa Kruger, Moscow’s “Queen of Tango”   1916  [Ref: Alexander Vassiliev, Beauty in Exile, (1998), p. 45]


Speaking of the "Tango Teas," one cannot forget Mme. Sukhomlinov’s November 1914 War Benefit nor how she had hired a smart society orchestra and advertised that the Tango and alcohol were included among the amusements offered in order to entice the beau mode of Petrograd to participate in her Fund Raiser.   



Madame Ekaterina Viktorovna Sukhomlinov, en boudoir, Petrograd.  1914




Tango dance frock, Gazette du Bon Ton, Fashion illustration, 1914


When the Empress read that Madame Sukhomlinov’s Tango and Martini spiced War Benefit was being held under her Imperial Patronage, an understandably aghast Alix wrote Nicky:

   
Letter No. 27 Tsarskoe Selo, Nov. 28-th 1914
To my horror I saw the anouncement in the papers, that in all the restaurants & cabarets (of bad reputation) d r i n k s would be sold for the profit of her branch store (my name in big letters) till 3 in the morning (now all restaurants are closed at 12) & that Tango & other dances would be danced for her profit, It made a shocking impression –



The Empress and Tatiana, Livadia, 1913.

[De Toilette]

I honestly do not know where the times goes but the day is spent in preparing this post and alas we shall have to wait for tomorrow for the final post of De Toilette, which I have now entitled: PETROGRAD « C’EST LA MODE » 1915

I just wanted to add that I forgot to include the fact that Irene Castle, in competition with Coco Chanel, who both claim to have been the first to bobb their hair in 1915, make Tatiana's shorn hair, the consequence of an illness in 1913, tres chic. 



Irene Castle pre-bobb hair do, New York, 1914



Tatiana's "bobbed" wig, The Imperial Daughters, St. Petersburg, 1913



Irene Castle, bobbed hair and headband, 1915
 

And here I thought the bobbed hair didn't come about till the 20s!

[De Toilette]

 
I know historyfan what you mean.  It is amazing how early these social changes were occurring and I think that one of the benefits of seeing how modern the last years of the Tsar’s reign brings the period much closer to us.  Those revolutionary changes that were being introduced in the late teens and that became accepted in general by the 1920’s remained in such solid rule that Rose Kennedy was able to wear a gown she had purchased in Paris in the 1920’s to one of the celebrations of her son’s inauguration in the 1960s.

So much of what we have generally accepted as belonging to the Roaring Twenties actually appeared as high fashion in the Late Teens, and thanks to that wonderful publication, Beauty in Exile, (2000) by the Russian fashion designer and consultant for the Russian edition of Vogue and Harpers Bazaar , Alexandre Vassiliev, we have a record of how elegant and modern the fashion world of Russia during the last years of the Romanovs.   

Some of the cutting edge fashions worn by members of Russia’s demi-monde, were far ahead of their time.  We can see this for ourselves in the 1916 society photograph of Vera Karalli who is wearing a deco-inspired evening gown that presages the fashions of the early 1920’s.   




Vera Karalli, deco-beaded Dance frock, Moscow 1916.  [Ref: Alexander Vassiliev, Beauty in Exile, (1998), p. 44]


Again, like the photographs of the 1913 Tercentenary Art Deco-inspired night-light designs that resembled Berlin in the 1930’s, I think there is a strong case for arguing that Russia was artistically and fashionably in at the cutting edge of European design even during the Great War.     



St. Petersburg, Tercentenary Celebration, Illuminations, 1913  [Ref: Orlando Figes, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution (1998), Images of Autocracy #1: between pp. 98 and 99]


Well I have to run today but hope to finish De Toilette tomorrow and I want to share some research of the photo of the Empress and Queen Alexandra and Princess Victoria that was dated 1908 in The Romanovs: Love, Power & Tragedy.  I had mentioned that I was surprised that the Empress was wearing a “Sheath Gown” and “Merry Widow” hat in May 1908 when it had not made its debut until June 1908 at the Races in Paris. 

Well I shall report my findings tomorrow too.   

[PETROGRAD « C’EST LA MODE » 1915-1916]

•    PETROGRAD « C’EST LA MODE » 1915-1916 


At long last we have arrived at the period of our present study; the sartorially revolutionary year 1915.  For 1915 that saw the end of the neo-classic silhouette of that had ruled fashion from 1908 – 1914.  More than that, the fashions of 1915 initiated the beginning of the “Youth Cult” with its new fashion ideal, the teenage girl. 

1915 also marked the end of a fashion cycle that had begun Napoleonic Era and the establishment of Empire fashions in the opening years of the Nineteenth century and that ended a hundred year later in the opening year of the Great War.  The hundred year cycle saw the waist gradually resume it’s normal position and as it did this the skirt started to expand; the fuller skirt of 1820 expanded to the bell skirts of the 1830 and continued to increase in width until the skirt reached their crinoline apogee in 1866; it then started its o gradual collapse into the bustle which in it’s turn grew smaller and larger and smaller still until it almost disappeared altogether by the 1890’s; then the slightly bustled A-lined skirt of the 1890’s soften and curved its self into the sensuous Art Nouveau/Asian inspired inverted curve of the early 1900’s; then as we have seen in 1908 the skirt started to straighten out into a neo-classic silhouette and as it gradually returned to Directoire modes the waist gradually rose to assume a Empire style.  I have always been fascinated by this cycle because I see it as the movement of thought, of decisions about what constitutes a lady and who that lady sees herself to be.  To me fashion history is political and religious history in picture form.  I guess that is why I have spent so much time with this last posting De Toilette and I must admit that I have learned more about the Empress as a result.     

One gains the full impact the perfect 100 year-circle of style when one compares the startling similarity between the fashions in 1813 with those in 1913. 



Lady shopping, 1813



Lady entering her Motor, 1913


By 1915 many of the smaller fashion establishments in Europe had closed their doors and those couture houses that remained turned to the American market to sell their fashions as the States were prospering as never before.  Because of America’s neutrality, which it maintained until 1917, the country’s industries adapted themselves to manufacture of war supplies for both the sides of the Great War.   

As a result America became a profitable market place for the remaining Parisian fashion houses who decided to shown their collections at the dual Pan-American Fair that had opened simultaneously in San Diego and San Francisco in 1915. 



French couture gowns, Pan American Fair Fashion Show, 1915


The new full, ballerina length skirts for 1915 not only introduced for the time a skirt hem that was fifteen inches above the floor and the new silhouette was immediate by Russia’s and demi-monde , such as the Tsar’s former mistress, the famous ballerina, Mathilde Kschessinska.


 
Matilda Kschessinska attired smart full skirt reception gown.   St. Petersburg. 1916


In America the 1915 Season was enlivened by Irving Berlin’s first Broadway Musical, Watch Your Step, staring Vernon and Irene Castle.  One of the first European courtier’s to seek the American market was Lady Duff Gordon who had designed all of Irene’s gowns for Watch Your Step.   Lady Duff Gordon has never received the full recognition she deserved as a Couturier because of the terrible scandal she was involved in on the Titanic after it was discover that their life boat was almost empty; there being only an exclusive number of social peers aboard.  That scandal combined with later business scandals served to exclude Lucille from being fully credited for the beautiful and innovative designs and color sense that made Lady Duff Gordon’s fashions so striking.         


 
Lucile evening gown, 1915   


Besides dancing with the Grand Duke Dimitri, Irene Castle never forgot dancing in one of the Lucile gowns that Lady Duff Gordon had created for her to wear in Irving Berlin’s Watch Your Step 1915 Broadway Musical.

Irene tells us:

The costume I wore opening night was probably the loveliest costume the world has ever seen.  It was designed by Lady Duff-Gordon and Elsie de Wolfe likened it to a Fragonard.  To me, it was sheer heaven.  It was the first dress with a torn hemline and was made of blue-gray chiffon that looked like smoke and was twelve yards around the bottom.  The bodice was silver with long, full chiffon sleeves, carrying a wide band of gray fox at the wrist.  The cloak was made of a blue-gray and silver brocade (using the wrong side), very full in the skirt, with a tight bodice that laced down the left side with chartreuse and emerald green satin streamers.  The huge skirt of this handsome brocade cloak was garlanded in light gray fox, which had been tinted slightly mauve…

Besides being beautiful, the dress was perfect for dancing.  It molded the legs and trailed out behind like smoke, giving a fluid grace to anything you did in it.  Lady Duff-Gordon had planned it that way, and she was one of the most remarkable dress artists I have ever known, not only in the line and contour of the clothes she created but also in her perfect combination of colors.   [Ref: Irene Castle, Castles In The Air, (1955), p. 135]


 
Irene Castle in Lucile reversed blue-gray and silver brocade Gown for Irving Berlin’s 1915 Broadway musical, Watch Your Step.

Another innovation that Lady Duff Gordon introduced during this period was the evening visor that had been inspired by automobile windshields.  With the introduction of the “self starter” in 1910 motoring was becoming more and more a lady’s sport and Lady Duff Gordon therefore introduced the mode of the “evening visor” to represent a lady behind the wheel. 

I only know this piece of trivia because of my chance meeting of the British Ballet and Fashion designer, Mathilde Etches Homan. It turned out that Mathilde was one of the few individuals that truly appreciated Lady Duff Gordon in spite of the scandals that had surrounded her name and that she had amassed quite number of Lucile designs, drawing, and the like.  It was Mathilde who told me to the story behind the “evening visor.”   



Evening Gown and “evening visor,” Fashion Illustration 1916

[PETROGRAD « C’EST LA MODE » 1915-1916]

I shall post the second half of PETROGRAD « C’EST LA MODE » 1915-1916 tomorrow...I know with me it is always tomorrow, tomorrow, isn't it.  It is just that I get so involved and find so many more aspects for the topic at hand than I had realized existed. 

But nonetheless I shall finish the post and will include a glimpse at the Empress and how she adapted the new modes whilst at the same time avoiding the new short skirts.  I have included a few photos of the girls who seem to have worn a conservative version of the new skirt.  It appears that while Russia's demi-monde such as Mathilde Kschessinska and Vera Karalli wore the new short skirt fashions, Russia's beau monde shortened their skirts as well in 1915-1916.

In keeping with our "modern" theme I have also included a few of Russia's Silent Screen Stars and also a few of the American Silent Screen stars.  I think that these comparison's of Russia's social world with the social world of Europe and the States really helps to give us a sense of how international the outlook of Petrograd society was, whilst still maintaining its own Russian flare. 
 

[An Afterthought, Dinner Gowns 1912]

An Afterthought, Dinner Gowns 1912


I just wanted to add a quick note before tomorrow’s post about the design of dinner gowns in 1912 as this relates our ability to accurately depict the Empress, who was entertaining an unsuspecting group of Polish aristocrats at Spala during the terrible ordeal of Alexis’ near fatal attack of hemophilia in early October 1912. 

I have learned in my research that “Hobble skirt” dinner gowns in 1912, even those with modified hems such as the Empress wore, often had trains were often designed as narrow gossamer, layered “fish tales” that came straight off the back of the gown and were often heavily beaded.  If one on flew about or were in a hurry or running, the trains with their weighted edges had a tendency to fly about in all directions, easily entangling themselves in surrounding objects or even around the limbs of the wearer; quite unlike the fuller trains of earlier periods that were stabilized by their more massive construction.       

It was no wonder that the Empress was experiencing difficulty as ran down the gloomy and dark corridors to get to her boy.   
 
Gillard remembered:

I could see the Tsarina in the front row, smiling and talking gaily to her neighbors...When the play was over, I went out by the service door from which a moaning sound came distinctly to my ears.  Suddenly I noticed the Tsaritsa running up holding her long, awkward train in her two hands.  I shrank back against the wall and she passed me without observing my presence.  There was a distracted and terrified look on her face.  I returned to the dinning room.  Footmen in livery were handing around refreshments and everyone was laughing and exchanging jokes...  [Ref: Pierre Gillard, Thirteen Years At the Russian Court, (1921), Alexander Palace Time Machine. Retrieved May 13, 2009, from http: /www.alexanderpalace.org/russiancourt2006/IV.html.]




“Running to Her Boy,” Gazette du Bon Ton, Fashion illustration.  1912