How the elevation and mass production of travel machines in the last century paved the way for innovation in fashion.

At first glance, fashion and machinery seem to come from very different worlds. While couture is identified by its intensely personal, handmade element, and is designed to fit the figure of a specific client, machinery is its polar opposite, born of post-war mass production and scalable ideas. And yet, throughout the last century, the pages of L&rsquo;OFFICIEL have shown that luxury fashion and a specific form of machinery&mdash;transportation&mdash;can often be found side by side, working together to propel similar ideals of glamour and innovation.&nbsp;
At the turn of the 20th century, the marriage between fashion and machinery was direct. New technologies were incorporated into garments through developments in textile manufacturing with the creation of materials like rayon and nylon. In the 1920s, costume balls became sites of technological experimentation, leading to some of the first forms of wearable technology. At Count Etienne de Beaumont&rsquo;s ball in 1924, the eccentric Italian socialite Marchesa Luisa Casati wore Paul Poiret&rsquo;s &ldquo;Fountain Dress,&rdquo; which necessitated a complex design of wiring and pearls. According to the artist Christian Bérard, the Marchesa and Poiret&rsquo;s attempt at design innovation ended up resembling a &ldquo;smashed zeppelin.&rdquo; Some of Casati&rsquo;s other experimental garments would quite literally go up in smoke thanks to their rudimentary and very literal executions. For example, when Casati attended an event as Saint Sebastian, her armor-like costume&mdash;which had been covered with illuminated arrows&mdash;had faulty wiring, delivering a powerful electrical shock to the Marchesa.&nbsp;
As technology began to infiltrate new facets of everyday life in the ensuing decades, the relationship between fashion and machinery morphed into the concept of &ldquo;lifestyle.&rdquo; When automobiles became widely available in the early decades of the 1900s, they quickly became symbols of innovation and novelty, as well as luxury and wealth.&nbsp;
In the 1920s, during the first decade of L&rsquo;OFFICIEL&rsquo;s tenure, articles focusing on the fashionable &ldquo;lifestyle&rdquo; represented by automobiles quickly overtook the publication. A column featuring American and European socialites dressed in the most iconic designers of the era and posing alongside their own vehicles became a staple in each issue. Credits featured the names of the designers responsible for dressing these women alongside those of the manufacturers of their automobiles, implying that the cars were an important accessory to any fine lady&rsquo;s look.

Model wearing Christian Dior in front of a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. Photographed by Michel Picard for a 1976 issue of L’OFFICIEL.

The celebration of car culture was indicative of a larger trend of what was expected from the fashionable woman. Prior to this, society women enjoyed far fewer freedoms; were limited in their ability to travel independently; and did not tend to prioritize athletic and leisure activities. However, following the advent of the motorcar, the fashionable way of life leaned into the modern ideals of sport, speed, and freedom&mdash;at least at the upper echelons of society. In addition to identifying the automobiles of wealthy women as a form of fashion expression, L&rsquo;OFFICIEL celebrated female drivers who had competed in racing cups.&nbsp;
This fixation with motorized vehicles was also reflective of the values claimed by a quickly modernizing world. During the 1920s, the concepts of reproduction, efficacy, and replication&mdash;all key to the increasingly popular &ldquo;Fordist&rdquo; attitude&mdash;reigned supreme in arts and culture. The Art Deco design movement was visually symbolic of this attitude, and valorized smooth, graphic lines and repetitive geometric patterns. These appeared across architecture (most notably New York&rsquo;s Chrysler building and Rockefeller Center); objects (particularly motor vehicles); and fashion (such as the boyish, boxy shapes popularized by Chanel, or the iconic beaded dresses of the era, which moved in a linear way that recalled machinery). Art Deco took the mechanical nature of Ford&rsquo;s assembly line and transformed it into a design aesthetic. It followed that machinery, which perfectly encapsulated these ideals, became a fashion statement in and of itself.

Photo by Patrick Bertrand for a 1970 issue of L’OFFICIEL.

An editorial for a 1979 issue of L’OFFICIEL. Photo by Patrick Bertrand.

While fast travel became fashionable, these modern modes of transportation transformed how women chose to dress their bodies. Designers like Chanel and Poiret are credited with removing the corset, shortening skirt lengths, and popularizing sportswear; these outfits were designed with the freedom of their wearer in mind. Suits made especially for driving in open-top cars on dusty roads became a necessity&mdash;further evidence of vehicles revolutionizing womenswear&mdash;as did skirts and footwear for tennis and golf.&nbsp;
Even during times of economic and social downturn, particularly World War II, machinery held its place within L&rsquo;OFFICIEL. Due to the regulations imposed by occupying forces in Europe and the rationing of provisions, the bicycle became a source of freedom and fashion to Parisian women. Though previously thought to have been far below luxury standards, the bicycle soon came to symbolize French resistance, and was regularly celebrated by L&rsquo;OFFICIEL.&nbsp;

November 1934 cover of L’OFFICIEL exemplifying the Art Deco style. Illustration by S. Chompré.

Shortly thereafter, the airplane took off as a symbol of a privileged lifestyle. Once air travel became safer and more accessible, long-distance travel was essential to any fashionable woman&rsquo;s calendar, with chic travel looks landing in the pages of L&rsquo;OFFICIEL next to the latest in aerodynamic design. Fashion designers crafted couture looks specifically for air travel, mimicking the popular styles of the golden age of aviation. Advertisements and editorials saw models posing on the tarmac to promote the fashionable lifestyle of flying. And, sealing fashion&rsquo;s approval of the aviation obsession, iconic couturiers across decades designed uniforms for flight attendants&mdash;most notably Chanel and Pierre Cardin for Olympic Airways; Dior and Balenciaga for Air France; and Yves Saint Laurent for Qantas. The link between fashion and machinery was inextricable.&nbsp;

Models in Christien Dior and Jean Patou with an officer of the French Air and Space Force from a 1958 issue of L’OFFICIEL

Spread from a 1952 issue of L'OFFICIEL

Illustrations by Jean Raoul Chaurand-Naurac from a 1936 editorial titled “Automobile et Mode”.

Thanks to subsequent decades of vast development, the partnership between fashion and machinery looked to the stars. By the 1960s, a fascination with interstellar travel, and techno-futurism had firmly embedded itself in the culture at large. As in the past, innovation in technology and manufacturing set the rigorous pace for style, inspiring designers and consumers to keep up and move forward. Paco Rabanne and André Courrèges pushed the boundaries of technology in fashion to include once-revolutionary materials like vinyl and metals.&nbsp;
Modern automobiles continue to reign supreme in the fashion editorial, providing the backdrop or playing supporting roles in fashion spreads, with models posing on and interacting with them. The luxury that cars represent is made explicit through the captions that accompany images: One such caption from a story in L&rsquo;OFFICIEL in 1968 proclaims &ldquo;more and more luxury&rdquo;; another from 1983 presents &ldquo;The Mercedes and the Fur.&rdquo; Even after their novelty has long worn off, the stylistic and modern significance of travel machines remains propulsive.

Moda x Machina: An Archival Look at Fashion's Connection to Technology

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