{"id":10104,"date":"2014-01-03T13:56:19","date_gmt":"2014-01-03T12:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colleensparis.com\/?p=10104"},"modified":"2020-07-26T12:10:40","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T10:10:40","slug":"a-parisians-closet-a-saleswomans-story-at-carnavalet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-wptechsupport.com\/colleensparis\/2014\/01\/a-parisians-closet-a-saleswomans-story-at-carnavalet\/","title":{"rendered":"A Parisian’s Closet-A Saleswoman’s Story at Carnavalet"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anonyme Femme \u00e0 l’\u00e9charpe1900
\nAnonyme\u00a9Droits r\u00e9serv\u00e9s Photo\u00a9Mus\u00e9e Carnavalet\/Roger Viollet<\/p>\n

One day, I walked into a saleswoman’s closet, figuratively speaking, at the Carnavalet Museum. On display until March 16, 2014 are hundreds of pieces of her clothing and her records. It is a step into the everyday world of a saleswoman’s life.<\/p>\n

As the curator says, the collection reads like a novel. With some imagination, it could. Alice Alleaume\u00a0kept all of her record books, inventory of her clothes and records when and where she bought them and wore them, the accessories and her clientele records. The Mus\u00e9e Carnavalet<\/a> and the\u00a0Palais Galliera<\/a>, the City of Paris Fashion Museum, call this exhibit “Roman d\u2019une garde-robe, le chic d\u2019une parisienne de la Belle Epoque aux ann\u00e9es 30<\/strong><\/em>” (“The Novel of a Wardrobe,\u00a0The Parisian Chic from the Belle Epoque to the 1930s<\/a>“).<\/p>\n

As you enter Alice’s “closet” at Carnavalet, \u00a0a mannequin is dressed in Alice’s evening dress. Timeless scarves (one could wear them today) dating from 1830s to 1870s are hanging on wood dowels, are fresh with wrinkles. The dates would correspond to her mother or sister, both of whom introduced Alice to the working world of high fashion.<\/p>\n

Alice worked as a sales girl at the Ch\u00e9ruit fashion house between 1912-1923. Her records are a diary based on her sales, alterations, her comments; archives that tell a “passionate story”.\u00a0The “Roman d’une garde-robe<\/em>” exhibit is the history of a family, a Parisian, a lead saleswoman at a once-famous fashion house.\u00a0Alice’s mother introduced her to working with high fashion. Her sister introduced her to working at the high fashion houses.<\/p>\n

The exhibit whisks you back to a time rarely spoken of: A married, working woman with a child, part of the haute couture crowd, socially and commercially.<\/p>\n

Usually exhibits of this kind are about women it could be hard to identify with: So high up the social ladder as to be unreachable.\u00a0This is a unique exhibit and a story that covers a “dressy” era (1871-the late 1930s). With its 400 pieces, dresses, accessories, textile samples, paintings, prints, photographs, sales ledgers, manuscripts and albums, the exhibit covers the highs and lows of the neckline, waistline and hemline of labels and pr\u00eat-\u00e0-porter\u00a0<\/em>(ready-to-wear), of someone who loved to dress well.<\/span><\/p>\n

I highly recommend that you take a copy of the English-language document “The novel of a wardrobe, Parisian chic from the Belle Epoque to the 1930s<\/a>“. It will make this fascinating exhibit, which is in French, even more interesting.<\/p>\n

Alice Alleaume (1881-1969)’s Influences<\/strong>
\nFrom an early age, Alice fell under the influence of fashion and preserving records from her mother, Ad\u00e8le. In one of the early display cases is her couturi\u00e8re en robes<\/em>, an elegant red lace dress Alice wore at the age of 4.<\/p>\n

Alice’s sister, Hortense, fourteen years her senior, stimulated an interest in high fashion. Hortense met Paul Poiret when he was a beginning designer at the House of Worth. Imagine, meeting Jean-Paul Gaultier in the Bastille, when he was barely known. Hortense worked as lead saleswoman at Worth and influenced Alice to travel to England between 1902 and 1906. In between, Alice worked at several of Paris’s leading fashion houses under the watchful eye of Hortense. Her English helped in sales to the wealthy British and other international clientele visiting Paris.<\/p>\n

In 1911, Alice married\u00a0banker\/philanthropist, continued working and moved to the Ch\u00e9ruit fashion house in 1912.\u00a0Over the span of Alice Alleaume’s career, she had over six hundred clients, including the Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain, the Infante Beatrice of Spain, the Queen Marie of Romania, the Princess Elisabeth of Romania, the Duchess of Arion and the Duchess de Gramont.<\/p>\n

The Palais Galliera recently acquired Alice’s wardrobe, with additional pieces from her sister and her daughter.\u00a0These are the contemporary fashion worn by her older sister, Hortense, (1867-1932) head saleswoman at Worth 7, rue de la Paix, the fashion center in Paris, and their mother, Ad\u00e8le-Baudron n\u00e9e Joly (1839-1909), a fashion seamstress.\u00a0Those pieces not worn by either Alice Alleaume (1881-1969), Hortense or Ad\u00e8leare are noted with the words: Ce mod\u00e8le n’a pas \u00e9t\u00e9 port\u00e9 par Alice<\/em>\u00a0(This piece was not worn by Alice). The pieces are, however, from the same period.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Pierre Brissaud, Entre chiens et loup. Robed de ville de Worth, 1912 \u00a9Pierre Brissaud\/Droits r\u00e9serv\u00e9s\u00a9Gazette du Bon ton\/Droits r\u00e9serv\u00e9sRobe\u00a9Worth, Paris Photos\u00a9St\u00e9phane Piera\/Galliera\/Roger-Viollet<\/div><\/a>\"\"
G. Agie\u00e9, Les mannequins, 1910. \u00a9Edition du Figaro-Droits r\u00e9serv\u00e9s Photo\u00a9G. Agi\u00e9\/Droits r\u00e9serv\u00e9s Prise de vue\u00a9G\u00e9rard Leyris<\/div><\/a>\"\"
G. Agi\u00e9, Salon de vente Ch\u00e9ruit, 1910 \u00a9Edition du Figaro-Droits r\u00e9serv\u00e9s Photo\u00a9G.Agi\u00e9\/Droits r\u00e9serv\u00e9s Prise de vue\u00a9G\u00e9rard Leyris<\/div><\/a>\"\"
Jean B\u00e9raud, La sortie des ouvri\u00e8res de la maison Paquin, rue de la Paix, vers 1902 \u00a9Mus\u00e9e Carnavalet\/Roger-Viollet<\/div><\/a>\"\"
H. Bocklage, Alice Alleaume, vers 1912. Photo \u00a9H.Bocklage\/Droits r\u00e9serv\u00e9s Prise de vue\u00a9G\u00e9rard Leyris<\/div><\/a>\"\"
Jeanne Lanvin, plastron et paire de manchettes \"S\u00e8vres\" 1934-1935.\u00a9St\u00e9phane Piera\/Galliera\/Roger-Viollet<\/div><\/a>\"\"
Robe du soir \"S\u00e8vres\", 1934-1935.\u00a9Patrimoine Lanvin\/Contact: Laure Harivel, Lanvin, 0144713101 iharivel@lanvin.com<\/div><\/a>\"\"
Hellstern & Sons, paire de salop\u00e9s du soir, vers 1925 Photo\u00a9St\u00e9phane Piera\/Galliera\/Roger-Viollet\u00a9Hellstern & Sons-contact: Succession Hellstern, 73 rue des Vignoles 75020 Paris<\/div><\/a><\/div>\n

CATALOGUE available in French<\/p>\n

Le Chic d’une Parisienne de la Belle \u00c9poque aux ann\u00e9es 30 Format: 17 x 23 cm, 224 pages VAT Price: 35 \u20ac ISBN: 978-2-7596-0229-2
\nRoman d\u2019une garde-robe, le chic d\u2019une parisienne de la Belle Epoque aux ann\u00e9es 30<\/a>\u00a0until March 16, 2014
\nMus\u00e9e Carnavalet<\/a> (Histoire de Paris)
\n23, rue de S\u00e9vigne 75003 Paris
\nOpen Tuesday to Sunday 10 am to 6 pm, Closed Monday and holidays<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One day, I walked into a saleswoman\u2019s closet, figuratively speaking, at the Carnavalet Museum. On display until March 16, 2014 are hundreds of pieces of her clothing and her records. It is a step into the everyday world of a saleswoman\u2019s life\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[691,662],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-museum-exhibitions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/staging-wptechsupport.com\/colleensparis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Carnavalet-Roman-01%C2%A9.jpg?fit=620%2C431&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-wptechsupport.com\/colleensparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-wptechsupport.com\/colleensparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-wptechsupport.com\/colleensparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-wptechsupport.com\/colleensparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-wptechsupport.com\/colleensparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10104"}],"version-history":[{"count":59,"href":"https:\/\/staging-wptechsupport.com\/colleensparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18142,"href":"https:\/\/staging-wptechsupport.com\/colleensparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10104\/revisions\/18142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-wptechsupport.com\/colleensparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-wptechsupport.com\/colleensparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-wptechsupport.com\/colleensparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-wptechsupport.com\/colleensparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}