This exhibition is split into chapters, which can either be navigated page by page or through your area of interest with a full list of links at the bottom of each page. Clicking on images will take you to their dedicated object page, where you can learn about the individual piece in detail.
Curation and extended essay by Summer Anne Lee
All photography by Tigz Rice Studios
Romain de Tirtoff, known professionally as Erté after 1913, is best remembered for his fashion illustrations exemplifying the glamorous Art Deco style. His decorated career as a costume designer, which spanned over six decades, is less well-known but just as impressive.
Erté: Feline Costumes for Bal Tabarin celebrates the museum’s acquisition of vintage costumes by Erté, designed to be worn by showgirls at the Bal Tabarin cabaret in Paris. It begins with an examination of Erté’s early career, including his first venture into theatrical costume design under the employ of avant-garde couturier Paul Poiret, and his designs for stage and screen during the “roaring twenties.” The second section highlights the history of Bal Tabarin, a venue frequented by tourists due to its reputation for being the home of the French cancan dance. Archival footage brings this lively venue to life.
These provide a foundation for the final section, revealing three risqué showgirl costumes by Erté, now in the collection of the Underpinnings Museum. These dramatic, sequined costumes are compared alongside souvenir album photographs of the same costumes being worn in Parisian revues Un Vrai Paradis, during the Nazi occupation of Paris, and Reflets, during the postwar period. Throughout, the story of Erté’s design talent is blended with the history of cabaret and showgirl costumes.
Romain de Tirtoff was born in Russia in 1892, but he became known to the world as Erté with his first signed drawings on page 219 of the May 1913 issue of Gazette du Bon Ton. The name Erté is a play on the French pronunciation of his initials, R. T., and was a suggestion by his employer, the famed Parisian couturier Paul Poiret. Although their collaboration was cut short by the outbreak of war, Poiret was also responsible for introducing Erté to costume design. Erté continued his career in fashion illustration and designing for theatres throughout the First World War, gaining a reputation as “the well known French designer and creator of charmingly bizarre effects in costume” by 1921, according to Women’s Wear Daily. Although best known for his theatrical costumes and set designs, including for the Folies Bergère, Ziegfeld Follies, and George White’s Scandals, he also had a brief career in Hollywood as head costume designer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), dressing its greatest stars. However, he terminated his contract early to return to his beloved Paris. Today he is remembered as the “Father of Art Deco” and one of the greatest designers of the 20th century.
Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, to an aristocratic family, Erté visited the World’s Fair in 1900 and decided he would one day move to Paris – which he did twelve years later, at the age of 19. Once there, in the center of the Western fashion industry, he began his career as a fashion illustrator and designer. However, Erté’s career had a false start. His first employer, a small dressmaker by the name of Caroline, dismissed him after a month for having no talent for design. Shortly after, he approached the renowned couturier Paul Poiret.
In 1913, Erté secured an 18-month contract working under the tutelage of Paul Poiret. Poiret opened his own couture house in Paris ten years earlier, after working as assistant designer at the esteemed House of Worth. By this time, Poiret was regarded as a top couturier in Paris, and the leader of early Art Deco fashion. Poiret was an avant-garde designer and introduced the straight, neoclassical silhouette in 1908 and the jupe culotte (trousers for women inspired by Turkish şalvar) in 1911, seen here in an illustration by George Lepape for Les choses de Paul Poiret.
.jpg "Georges Lepape, La Gazette du Bon Ton, 1913. Via Wikimedia Commons.")
Erté’s first venture into costume design was in the spring of 1913, when Maison Paul Poiret costumed French playwright Jean Richepin’s production of Le Minaret. The production starred famed exotic dancer Mata Hari and was set in a nonspecific Islamic region, reflecting Parisian audiences’ appetite for exoticized depictions of “the Orient.” Poiret saw this as the perfect venue to promote his dramatic new “lampshade” tunic, seen in this illustration.
Press coverage from Comoedia Illustre praised the costumes, designed by Erté and Spanish artist José de Zamora, commenting: “The effort one feels to harmonize the costumes in their colors and designs with the setting and its different lights is worth noting … There is an indication of a new art, far superior in its distinction and tact to that of the much-vaunted ballet russe.” Serge Diaghilev’s ballet russe, or Russian ballet, frequently staged productions set in Russia, India, the Middle East, and Ancient Egypt, and its vibrant costumes influenced both Poiret and Erté.
The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 brought Poiret’s couture business to a close, causing Erté to leave Paris and seek new employment. As a Russian citizen, Erté was not compelled to serve in the military because he was his parents’ eldest son. He sought refuge in Monte Carlo on the French Riviera with Prince Nicolas Ourousoff—his distant cousin, business manager, and life partner of over twenty years. From there, he found work as an illustrator for American magazines Vogue and Harper’s Bazar (spelt Harper’s Bazaar after 1929), with the latter offering him an exclusive contract. Erté lived in Monte Carlo until 1923, frequenting its beaches and occasionally visiting its famous casino, seen here.
Erté designed 240 magazine covers for Harper’s Bazar from January 1915 through December 1936, gaining him a reputation as the world’s leading fashion illustrator. His first cover featured some recognizable design hallmarks associated with Poiret, including his signature rose motif. However, by the 1920s, Erté’s highly stylized illustrations cemented his role as a leader of the Art Deco movement. The artist’s involvement with Harper’s Bazar was not limited to the cover, as his original illustrations and personal observations were often featured inside the magazine, including his reviews of resorts, art exhibitions, and performances in Monte Carlo and Paris with “characteristic pungency.”
While continuing his career as a fashion designer and illustrator, Erté also designed costumes for theatrical productions, operas, and music halls in France and the United States throughout the 1920s. His most long-standing engagement was with Folies Bergère in Paris, where he worked with Max Weldy to costume numerous revues beginning in 1919.
This 1927 poster for La Folie du Jour, advertising Josephine Baker as headliner, indicates that in addition to music and dancing, spectacular costumes and partial nudity were highlights of performances at Folies Bergère. Baker and other Black performers capitalized upon white Europeans’ fascination with (and fantasies of) Black culture, which were often rooted in racial stereotypes.
From abroad, Erté designed costumes for New York City productions including the Ziegfeld Follies, Greenwich Village Follies, and George White’s Scandals, all popular revue series featuring large casts of beautiful women in elaborate costumes. Demonstrative of the interrelated nature of different facets of Erté’s career, a costume designed for the Greenwich Village Follies’ September 1922 opening also featured in the July issue of Harper’s Bazar, on the sixth page of this digitized copy. Captioned “the improvised cage,” Erté imagined how the wearer of this costume would be able to trap two lovers underneath the beaded cage skirt.
This elaborately beaded evening gown with Egyptian motifs was designed by Erté and manufactured by an American fashion house. The discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 inspired many designers to look to the ancient world, exemplified by Parisian couturier Jean Patou’s 1924 gown called Byzance. However, Erté was not one to follow “ephemeral crazes” and had long been inspired by the visual culture of Ancient Egypt. His first foray into film costume was for the 1920 movie The Restless Sex, for which he produced costumes inspired by Ancient Egyptian and Greek mythology for a masked ball scene. These costumes were also illustrated in Harper’s Bazar.
In 1924, Erté was asked to design costumes for Maurice Rostand’s “Secret of the Sphinx” at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre. A programme attributes the costume of the titular role, played by Ida Rubenstein, to the House of Worth. Founded in 1858, by the 1920s this prestigious couture house was producing elegant columnar gowns in sumptuous fabrics like the example shown here.
However, in a Harper’s Bazaar article, Erté took credit for the costume design, claiming, “it gave me the greatest pleasure to be permitted to design the costume of the Sphinx, expressing all the mystery of that fabulous monster; this costume was altogether the antithesis of the music-hall vedette costume of Madame Rubenstein.”
Date: c. 1920
Origin: France
Fabric: Silk velvet, silk crepe, glass beads
Brand: House Of Worth
This 1928 photo shows American actress Marion Martin costumed as one of the “George White Girls” in the ninth edition of George White’s Scandals at the Apollo theatre, with costumes by Erté and American designer Charles LeMaire. Erté likely dressed the principal players; his costumes were made in Paris by Max Weldy, head of the Folies-Bergère costume workshop, while LeMaire’s were made locally. Like Erté, LeMaire also costumed Broadway productions and, eventually, Hollywood films.
“1925 MGM Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studio Tour Culver City California Hollywood Movie Making,” Via Periscope Film LLC archive.
In 1925, Erté moved to Hollywood and costumed several silent films distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), including The Mystic (1925) and Ben Hur (1925). On his way to California, he stopped in New York to see his designs on stage in performances of Ziegfeld Follies and George White’s Scandals.
A behind-the-scenes film of a Culver City studio tour shows him draping a costume onto actress Lucille Le Sueur, with the text on the screen crediting Erté as the studio’s “foremost designer” creating chic and unusual costumes. However, Erté terminated his contract with MGM in November of 1925, telling the press he was “through with the movies forever.” The following month, Erté returned to France, where he spent the rest of his career.
Date: c. 1830-1840s
Origin: Unknown
Fabric: Cotton
Date: c. 1920s
Origin: USA
Fabric: Silk satin, coutil, machine-made lace
Brand: Gossard
French actress Renée Adorée’s refusal to wear a corset for a film set in the 1830s, La Bohème (1926), reportedly hastened Erté’s departure from Hollywood. Erté recalled in his memoir: “On the day she started filming she looked very good in her costume, but the following day … She had dispensed with the corset and had got her dresser to let out the bodice. As her costumes had full skirts and puffed sleeves you can imagine the result. Her excuse was that she could not eat while wearing a corset and that she needed to eat a lot while filming.”
During the 1830s, corsets like this white cotton example offered gentle support to the body, emphasizing a low waist and hourglass shape. The fashionable silhouette of the mid-1920s, however, was more youthful and streamlined. As such, fashions in corsetry were less rigid than those of previous decades, exemplified by this Gossard example. However, some rebellious young women, colloquially referred to as flappers or garçonnes in French, still went without.
