Lyndhurst Exhibition Gallery: Influencers- 1920s Fashion and The New Woman
Influencer: A person who inspires or guides the actions of others; often, specifically a person who is able to generate interest in something (such as a consumer product) by posting about it on social media. (Merriam Webster)
The term “Influencer” was not colloquial in the early part of the twentieth century. There were, however, women to whom it applied, those who by example affected style and stimulated change. “Followers” amassed through newspapers and glossy magazines rather than the internet, but collect they did. Style was emulated, trends emerged.
Lyndhurst’s exhibition features three visible, accomplished females who reflect post World War I social shifts as much as fashion: couture designer Coco Chanel (1883-1971), dancer/actress Irene Castle (1893-1969), and poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), cited in the catalog as “the IT girl of bohemian/artistic/intellectual life.”
Charles Dana Gibson (Public Domain)
Prior to “jazz age” fashion, the Gibson Girl was a national ideal. Her exaggerated S-curve torso was achieved by wearing a swan-bill corset – its rigid insert in front forced the torso forward and made hips jut out in back. The restrictive silhouette was replaced by slim, straight flapper dresses with low necklines and ankle length hems. There was a feeling of emancipation.
Women had taken on jobs during the war and developed independent lives. Telephones and expanded transit meant open communication. As is pointed out in the beautiful catalog, “a combination of women’s suffrage, prohibition, and Margaret Sanger’s invention of birth control set a completely new tone for the 1920s…make-up and perfume were now acceptable… deodorants and underarm razors were invented…” (Howard A. Zar)
Left: Blue silk “Orientalist” cloche; Right: Evening Shoes by Sandalari bottier, Paris- Both Collection of the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society at Steepletop
Lingerie was simplified, unconstrained. Elastic was introduced. Dress fringe cascaded. Women danced with abandon. Frocks moved. Costume jewelry grew in popularity allowing women of all incomes to ornament themselves. Cloche hats were designed to complement short hairstyles. Irene Castle is said to have invented bobbed hair, robbing what countless men felt was a woman’s femininity. She did so for ease of management while in the hospital for an appendectomy, yet the public interpreted it as the gesture of a “fast” woman. For the perfect example of reaction, read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Bernice Bobs Her Hair.
Coco Chanel (This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license)
“Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.” Coco Chanel
At first a milliner, Coco Chanel became one of the most influential couturiers of her time popularizing sporty, casual chic. She recognized growing acceptance of women’s involvement in physical activities, fulfilling a need and extending it to daywear. Since fine fabric was limited after the war, Chanel availed herself of material that was both cheaper and foreign to high fashion like tweed and jersey, the latter most commonly used for men’s underwear.
Neptune’s Daughter Bathing Suit-Cornell Fashion and Textile Collection
Effect on the period’s contemporary sportswear is exemplified by a wool swimming costume from Niagara Knitting Mills. Its silhouette lands squarely between longer suits from turn of the century and Jantzen’s introduction of a one piece in the 1930s. Accompanying black bloomers add modesty. Imagine soaking wet wool!
In 1921, the doyenne presciently introduced her namesake perfume, Chanel No5. Scents often kept a couture house financially afloat during difficult times. She sold that segment of the business, then spent 20 years wresting back control.
Left: Mark Walsh Leslie Chin Collection. Vintage Luxury New York Right: Cornell Fashion and Textile Collection
Chanel is credited with universalizing “the little black dress.” An actual 1929 Chanel creation – left -is the epitome of unfussy elegance. (This is the first time the piece has been exhibited.) Its low waistline and Japonesque rising sun pattern, were signatures. Defining jewelry and an early wrap design – fixed by the shoulder bow and brooch – make it both distinctive and comfortable.
The model at right is an American interpretation in silk/satin with rhinestones. Its owner, Martha Van Rensselaer, was tall and full figured. Contributed dresses from her closet are installed to reflect body accuracy. Women of all shapes and sizes were able to express personal style with these silhouettes. The designer also “created an extensive line of costume jewelry allowing all women to appear heavily jeweled. This long necklace of rock crystal and silver is a rare survivor from the period. The bracelet has never been exhibited.” (The catalog.)
Mark Walsh Leslie Chinn Collection. Vintage Luxury, New York
Chanel is perhaps best known for the suit recreated by every designer who succeeded her at the atelier: “with its slightly padded, square shouldered cardigan jacket, two patch pockets and sleeves that unbuttoned back to reveal crisp white cuffs,” above “a white muslin blouse with a perky collar and bow [that] stayed perfectly in place with small tabs that buttoned onto the waistline of an easy A-line skirt.” (Janet Wallach – Chanel, Her Style and Her Life)
The designer was also a WWII Nazi Collaborator.
Read: Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life by Justine Picardie
Irene Castle- Photo courtesy of Irene Castle photographs and papers. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
“In the world of fashion, where there is no appeal from the decree of the great designers, the modern dance has come boldly to the front and demanded, and won, sensible styles.” Irene Castle
Irene and Vernon Castle, ballroom dancers and teachers who appeared on Broadway and in silent films, were the forerunners to Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Inventors of The Castle Walk, they also refined and popularized fox trot and ragtime dances like The Turkey Trot and Grizzly Bear. The progressive couple traveled, against social mores, with an all Black band.
Dance Costume – Cornell Fashion and Textile Collection
Much photographed and copied, not the least because she was a wholesome example of womanhood, Irene became at first an unwitting trendsetter, then was paid for her endorsements. “She set the mold for today’s content collaborations, brand partnerships and licensing agreements…You could find the name Castle attached to hairstyles, shoes, clothes, headwear and other accessories.”
Gowns worn onstage were featured in fashion magazines. Lucy Christiana, Lady Duff Gordon, who went under the couturier name of Lucille, designed much of Irene’s apparel. The dancer (also) “pioneered the first eponymous, celebrity, ready-to-wear fashion line, Irene Castle Cortecelli Fashions” though admitted she had little to do with its appearance. Quotes: The Castle Craze – Denise Nicole Green, Ph.D. When Vernon was killed in World War I, Irene starred in a silent film series called Patria. She was billed as “The best known and best dressed woman in America.”
Both Cornell Fashion and Textile Collection
Dresses by Cortecelli: Left: An ensemble whose jacket lining is the same fabric as the dress, adding couture details to ready-to-wear. Art Deco geometrics create a pattern. Looseness allows ease. Right: A second Day Dress, perhaps for afternoon tea, showcases embroidery repeated on a small scarf around the neck. It’s slightly longer than most of Irene’s choices giving full berth to a drop waist, self ribbon belt and trapezoidal flounce.
Read: Irene and Vernon Castle: Ragtime Revolution by Eve Golden
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, an Astaire/Rodgers film, captures much of their history. Irene served as technical advisor apparently making considerable fuss over the accuracy of gowns.)
Edna St. Vincent Millay- Photo courtesy of The Edna St. Vincent Millay Society at Steepletop
“I am glad that I paid so little attention to good advice; had I abided by it, I might’ve been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes.” Edna St. Vincent Millay
Collection of the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society at Steepletop and Cornell Fashion and Textile Collection
Raised in an extremely liberal household, Edna St. Vincent Millay chafed at Vassar’s conservative environment to such degree she almost didn’t graduate. It was natural to move to Greenwich Village which practically advertised nonconformity. The critic Floyd Dell wrote that she was “a frivolous young woman, with a brand-new pair of dancing slippers and a mouth like a valentine.” This makes her sound feminine while in fact her own style was more tailored. A riding ensemble worn on the streets shows the poet’s choices of a point – collar shirt, necktie, tweed jacket and riding boots.
Millay was a playwright, librettist, essayist, poet, feminist activist, and believer in free love. Openly bisexual, her work was known for rejecting conventional gender roles. She toured nationally at a time when poetry was read, memorized and recited, setting an example to a generation of free spirited women. In 1923, she was the first woman and second person to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. After her death, The New York Times described her as “an idol of the younger generation during the glorious early days of Greenwich Village.”
Left: Collection of the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society at Steepletop Right: Cornell Fashion and Textile Collection
Bohemian fashion was very different than what was happening uptown. Left: This Chinese, silk, embroidered garment purchased on Millay’s 1926 honeymoon would not look out of place today. Non-western cultures allowed women to wear comfortable trousers. Right: Embrace of foreign influence included Egyptian design elements, these likely from King Tut’s tomb (discovered in 1922.) This American example (not Millay’s) is from the same year.
Read: Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
Unconstructed shapes could be drawn over a head without fasteners. I’m told by curator Howard Zar none of the dresses in the exhibit have zippers which would have ruined the look. “A typical back zipper would have killed the look. Similarly, with wild nights of dancing, a zipper down the side would have ruined the line when ones arms were up and flailing and the underarm was visible.”
Cornell Fashion and Textile Collection
More familiar will be classic flapper dresses with beaded, sequin or rhinestone embellishment and Art Deco design. Heels are higher than the decade before, purses elaborate.
Influencers is small and skillfully curated, presenting pristine samples of clothing and accessories from a skirt hoop and dresses to hats, shoes, bags, and jewelry worn by those the show calls out and others of the period. Pick up a guide as you stroll through to learn details which don’t clutter the exhibit.
Contributions from Cornell University College of Human Ecology Fashion and Textile Collection, Edna St. Vincent Millay’s home, Steepletop, Lyndhurst Collections, and Private Lenders.
All recommended books are carried by the Lyndhurst Gift Shop.
I recommend booking a tour of the splendid, Gothic revival, castle-like mansion to make the day complete. Sitting on 67 beautifully maintained acres where one can walk, it was designed in 1838 by Alexander Jackson Davis.
Second owner George Merritt doubled the house size. Twenty-six years later, third owner railroad tycoon Jay Gould parked his yacht down a hill in the Hudson. Depiction of Gould can currently be seen in television’s The Gilded Age. In fact, the show has repeatedly been filmed at Lyndhurst for verisimilitude. In 1961, the estate’s last owner, Anna Gould, Dutchess of Tallyrand, donated it to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Most of the furniture, art, décor, and household objects, including ornate tabletop pieces, are original to the mansion. Some came with the gift, others were tracked down and repurchased by Lyndhurst’s Executive Director, in-house Sherlock Holmes, Howard Zar. Woodwork, fireplaces, Tiffany glass, artisanal ironwork, painted, domed, and beamed ceilings are remarkable. The kitchen looks like Upstairs, Downstairs.
All photos courtesy of Lyndhurst
Exhibition Photographs by Bruce M. White
Influencers – Through September 23, 2024
The Lyndhurst Estate is about 30-40 minutes by car or train.
Lyndhurst Mansion – Where the Hudson Valley Begins
