Jean Patou, a french designer created the modern sportswear label. Jean Patou''s vision of the ultimate sportswear collection was realized when he opened Le Coin des Sports, a boutique in Paris that catered to all sorts of sportswear, including accessories. He extended these shops to Deauville and Biarritz, both popular resort areas to travelers.
Jean Patou was a pioneer in the fashion world. In the 1920s, he invented designer ties made from women's dress and his famous cubist sweaters, were the one of the biggest trends in the '20s.
Jean Patou also created the first designer label, which he had sewn onto his designs. Jean Patou was able to produce exclusive colors through a special dyeing method so as to eradicate competitor replicas. In 1929, he raised the waistline of the skirt and brought it back to its natural hemline - a move that Chanel immediately followed.
Jean Patou's involvement in the evolution of sportswear is extensive, its influence, far ranging. Clothes were made to be beautiful yet comfortable, functional and simple, with accents limited to seam linings and embroideries, as exemplified by his creation of the cardigan. He developed a fabric for swimwear that resisted shrinkage and was non-colorfast. He also invented the knitted swimsuit and tennis skirt. His collection was publicized by famous names such as Wimbledon tennis star Suzanne Lenglen and American aviator Ruth Elder. Women of the 1920s started to imitate this sporty look even if they did not engage in sports. His reach was deep, and profound. He did both couture, and ready-to-wear. His couture was prized by leading figures of the day, including the forementioned Hollywood starlet Constance Bennett. This Euro aristo fashion, was known as 'hard chic'. Hard chic, was the fashion of the 'international set'. Jean Patou was the master of hard chic. He was the main competitor in Paris for Coco Chanel, but his early death in 1936, sealed his fate in becoming one of the most underrated fashion designers of all time.
Notwithstanding, Jean Patou's shows were the event of Parisian haute society in the 1930s, much to the dismay of Coco Chanel. Significantly, during the 1930s, Patou became a pioneer of the modern machine-knitwear industry, creating cubist-inspired jumpers with matching hats, scarves and gloves, as well as the first knitted swimsuit. Patou was one of the first couturiers to recognize the need to develop a range of ready-to-wear clothes for his clients, which could be purchased in either small or medium sizes, with the price including one alteration. This marked a new direction in couture in 1929, and pre-empted the concept of 'fashion designer wear' that we know today. In 1935 at the height of the Depression he rolled his signature fragrance, Joy, for his clients who could no longer afford his couture.
Model Portia Grafton is wearing a very hard chic, black crepe beach coat with white terry lining and matching black shorts 1927. Patou sporstwear for the 'international set'. Chic sportswear for the haute Bourgeois. Notice, this makes today's American 'sportswear' look very unsophisticated, and provincial. Sportswear initially was developed for the same clientele that bought couture. These were the hard chic people who jet setted to St. Moritz, to ski, vacation in the Cote d'Azure, etc. Later sportswear became more and more accessible, and eventually in the '50s and '60s with the emergence of a broad middle class, in America and Europe, it became a mainstay of the new middle class.
Couture's decline has more to do with the post WW11 middle class as a social force, and its displacement of the former privaledged aristo class which had dictated the fashion. They were the only people who could afford to buy these luxuries. Mass produced affordable apparel, was not apparent until after WW11.
Post war western society was transformed and Democratized. The elegance, & the high sophistication of the '20s and '30s was replaced with a very pedestrian, utilitarian, aesthetic that emphasized comfort, and value, above the old aesthetic, of Beauty and refinement. This is somwhat of an oversimplification, but it bears consideration, for people who are now decrying the death of couture. The social/economic system/class that produced couture originally doesn't exist anymore. Their is wealth, but today's wealth is very new, and it doesn't have the social knowledge/wealth of, that the old traditional class system of Europe, which created the Beauty, and glamour, that everyone today is so enamored of. This new class of wealth doesn't have the same level of understanding or social knowledge, that the old aristo class had. These people were educated in a world that promoted the Humanties, and Arts. e.g. that taught Latin to grade school children ( many American public schools taught Latin, up till the '70s) . Understanding of The Theatre, Ballet, Symphony, were common, and more widely dispersed in the general population.
People today are so impressed with vestiges of wealth and privaledge, just like the people who went to the cinemas, in the '30s to escape. But not many have either the money, nor knowledge of how to attain these things. It's all about money today. The pursuit of money, in and of itself is the goal, instead of the money being the means to achieve a higher end. All that is left today is the money. The old leisure class, was able to develop its aesthetic/social status, based on the luxury of not having to work . This was used to cultivate the higher things in life. Or at least what was considered the higher things in life, like Art, music etc. What are the higher things of life today? This wouldn't even enter the minds of most people, it sounds archaic. But, truth and Beauty are archaic, and is what makes us human. If that's archaic, what does that make us?
It is curious that glamour has gained a strangle hold over today's pop culture, in the same way it did in the '30s. Both were times of economic hardship, and panic. Ghetto fabulousness of today, and the worship of all things bling, bling, stands in stark contrast to the ever increasing limiting economic opportunities of day to day life, for more and more people. This is a very similiar feeling that people expressed during the last Depression. Once people had the economic circumstances, to purchase and live the comfortable, safe, middle class life, in the suburbs, they had less desire to fantasize about their lives, like they did in the '30s during the Great Depression. If you were hungry, and couldn't feed your family, take them to the picture show once or twice a month to escape, and see stars like Greta Garbo, and Joan Crawford, in clothing one could only dream of owning.
Model Suzanne Hanglen is wearing a sports wear outfit from 1926, designed by Jean Patou, which consists of a long, belted tunic-sweater with zig-zag bands on sleeves and hem, a pencil-pleated white crepe de chine skirt and a white felt cloche. Considered brilliant at public relations, and possibly the first designer to have invented the 'celebrity fashion show', Jean Patou ensured that celebrities, journalists and friends packed the front rows of special preview parades for his couture lines, where he served champagne and gave out perfume samples, of his latest perfumes. In 1929 he introduced Le Sien, a sports fragrance, for those clients who could no longer afford his couture. You not only needed to look chic, on the tennis court, you had to have the right fragrance, to match it.
www.livejornal.com/bygonefashion
Ilka Chase, comedienne and actress, wearing a black crepe evening gown with peplum 1930. This is the hard chic look of the international set. The classical aesthetic, is the defining feature of the high fashion from this time period. It looks effortless. Classical Greek statues, and the symmetry of classical art was the reference. An air of poise, and self-reflection, like a Greek statue that has the silent pose of a Greek statue. That far away look is the classical, eternal look.
Comments
So true what you say - today it's all about money and bling. There's no culture, no taste. Original sportswear was chic, certainly not the case today.
Great article about one of my favorite designers of all time! Some of this background material is new to me. (The classic Patou fragrances are also my all-time favorites.) Thanks for the history lesson and great photos!
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