#L'OFFICIEL100: The Art of Fashion
From the beginning, fashion and art have intermingled, giving creativity and innovation a place in our everyday lives.
The English couturier Charles Frederick Worth—preferred designer of Empress Eugénie—revolutionized the dress code of high society with one bold gesture, radical and innovative, subtle and of extreme simplicity. By placing his name, Worth, on the latest dress he was designing, it passed all at once from the status of ornament to that of a work of art. The gesture, seemingly innocent at first, turned out to be crucial, sealing the fate of fashion and becoming the founding act that still resonates today.
Having proclaimed himself an Artist with a capital A, Worth set in motion a course of action that would launch the glamorous myth of the couturier-creator, ahead of his time. It would be Worth who dictated the spirit of the times and future trends, but most of all, he conceived the entire DNA of the profession of couturier-as-superstar. One thing led to another, and he invented the concept of the designer label, which he would refine during the rest of his career.
In the space of barely a decade, a formidable momentum was well underway. In 1868, the Chambre Syndicale de la confection et de la couture pour dames et fillettes was created, centered on two sectors with contradictory goals and methods:
Haute Couture and industrial ready-to-wear clothing. The former offered original creations, launched trends, and engaged in constantly renewed innovation, like art, rising and falling by fits and starts. Producers of readymade clothing were content to follow, reproducing couture creations on a mass scale. Nevertheless, the two formed a coherent whole, since both were part of an industrial system based on purchases by customers.
A worthy successor of “the artist couturier,”1 Paul Poiret, proclaimed that his own creations were true works of art. “At the moment I create them, I feel that my dresses are works of art: I project something of my personality into the fabric. When I indicate a fold, it’s more than a fold—it’s an expression of will, of an intention behind the fold: from that, line and style are born.2
Works that one must highlight and also protect from piracy are a thorny problem that has now become a major scourge negatively affecting all segments of the fashion industry. In 1921, the fashion purist Madeleine Vionnet created the Association pour la défense des arts plastiques et appliqués to fight against piracy, although the law did not yet place fine arts and applied arts on an equal footing.
Not all couturiers shared this attitude. For example, Gabrielle Chanel thought about copies in a radically different way: “Few creators have been copied more than I have, and it’s always made me happy. I’m on the side of the greatest number of people. I think that style needs to go into the street, into everyday life, like a revolution.”3 Yves Saint Laurent was more nuanced: “An art form? I would say an artistic profession instead. It’s something extremely complex and multifaceted. One uses the same process as a painter, a sculptor, a director—especially since a fashion show is a very important event.”4
But who actually creates fashion? Christian Dior, the most diplomatic of couturiers, explained: “In reality, this ethos is created by the public. It is composed of several different elements. The first is the spirit of the times; the second is logical thinking; the third, happenstance; the fourth, the choices made by magazines.” 5
In fact, fashion magazines are essential vehicles of the fashion system because they present and disseminate the creations of the great couturiers to the largest possible number of people. A pioneer in the successful collaboration between art and fashion, Elsa Schiaparelli stated, “Back then, artists contributed much more to the life and development of fashion than now. The magazines encouraged us, sought our aid and support. I’m always struck when I reread publications from pre-war years. Presenting fashion was a real art form then, something true and beautiful, and people attached a great deal of importance to all genuine creations... ”6
Haute Couture offered original creations, launched trends, and engaged in constantly renewed innovation, like art, rising and falling by fits and starts.
L’Officiel de la Couture et de la Mode de Paris is no exception to the rule, because since it was launched, exactly one hundred years ago, the magazine—through its title and its intent—has positioned itself as the official, indispensable conveyor of the message of an entire industry. Barely a year after its inception, “the bestower of French taste on a suitable clientele” had established itself and made decisive progress: “L’OFFICIEL has presented masterpieces. The moment has come for it to do more—it must champion them.”7
Published simultaneously in French, English, and Spanish, L’OFFICIEL not only chronicled the new French fashion collections, but also reported news from textile manufacturers, embroiderers, and lacemakers, as well as the creators of novelties in fur, lingerie, and accessories (hats, purses, jewelry, fans, parasols, umbrellas) that varied according to the spirit of the times. For each edition, the entire staff highlights the latest fashions, partnering with illustrators like Léon Benigni, Bernard Blossac, and the iconic René Gruau, who set the tone and represent current feminine values. Photography played an essential role in the visual narration of the first editions. From the Frères Séeberger in the interwar period, to Francesco Scavullo in the 1980s, by way of Peter Knapp, Patrick Bertrand, or, more recently, Michel Mallard, photographers have helped to influence the tastes of each generation. Makeup artists and hair stylists have also contributed to this collaboration of inspired creators desiring to celebrate and introduce the talents of each era.
Today, Parisian fashion continues to exercise a fascinating seduction, a marvelous attraction anchored in the promotion and celebration of creativity so dear to Charles Frederick Worth. Season after season it follows the rules of the game, while revisiting the mysteries of constantly renewed creation. Always forging ahead at its side, L’OFFICIEL tirelessly accompanies “the brilliant and capricious fairy”8 that is fashion. Fashion that, more relevant than ever, so successfully marries the past to a present that is already looking ahead to the future.
An edited excerpt of Pamela Golbin’s text from L’Officiel 100: One Hundred People and Ideas from a Century in Fashion by Stefano Tonchi, published by Marsilio. Available now.
1 Paul Poiret, Revenez-y, Paris: Gallimard, 1932, 90.
2 Huguette Garnier, “La robe ‘oeuvre d’art’ peut être critiquée,” Excelsior, 15 April 1924.
3 “Chanel dit non,” Marie Claire, March 1967, 62.
4 Jean-François Josselin, “Les années Saint Laurent,” Le Nouvel Observateur, December 1983, 58.
5 Je suis Couturier, remarks by Christian Dior reported by Élie Rabourdin and Alice Chavanne,
Paris: Éditions du Conquistador, 1959, 54–55.
6 Elsa Schiaparelli, Shocking, souvenirs d’Elsa Schiaparelli, Paris: Éditions Denoël, 1954, 90.
7 “A nos lecteurs” (“To Our Readers”), L’Officiel de la Couture, 15 October-15 November 1922,
No.15, no page numbers.
8 “Le sourire de Paris,” L’Officiel de la Couture, 15 April-15 May 1923, no. 21.
