Weekend Reading 9: The Actress: Lantelme and the Couturier

"I had contrived to get a photograph of Lantelme; it adorned my dressing table and I made desperate efforts to look like her, dress my hair in the same way, wear the same clothes." Misia Sert

Lantelme and the couturier Madeleine Vionnet.  

Easter Weekend reading for you from RARE vintage.  Part Two in our series on Lantelme.  Read on...

In 1906 Madeleine Vionnet accepted an offer from Jacques Doucet.  He agreed to let her design her own models.  Her first act was to create dresses to be 'worn against the skin' by the mannequins.  She eliminated a high necked, long sleeved sheath over which the dresses were presented.  It was considered improper to show too much skin.  

Her models were worn primarily by actresses who were clients of Doucet: Cécile Sorel, Eve Lavalliere, Réjane and Lantelme.  

Photograph of Lantelme inscribed to Madeleine Vionnet.

 

Weekend Reading 8: The Actress: Lantelme and the Bottier

I love Hilary Rodham Clinton's expression 'It takes a village'.  Like getting ready for the Met gala, it takes a village but more on that later...

A fashionable woman needs a village: the clothes, the shoes, the lover...  This is Part One in a series on the French actress Lantelme who was the daughter of a janitor and was said to be the most beautiful woman in the world.  Weekend reading for you from RARE vintage.  Read on...

There is a photo of the French actress Lantelme and it is inscribed "to the dearest and best shoe maker in the world".

Lantelme

Yantorny: Bottier

Paolo Yantorny, the artist bootmaker, who clothes the feet of Princesses, Grand Dukes and men of wealth. If you happen to be one of these he will receive you in his white apron and somewhat rough clothing, and with the same absence of any sort of deference.