Making Fashion: Two New Exhibitions (With Books!)

Two current exhibitions celebrate the work of those who helped shape Dietrich's image:

Photographer Horst P. Horst photographed Dietrich on several occasions for Vogue. A major career retrospective, focussing on the photographer's work at the fashion magazine, is currently on show at London's V&A (where it will run until 4 January 2015). 

Photographer of Style was was opened by Carmen Dell’Orefice, the one-time Vogue model who worked with the photographer from 1946. Using over 250 photographs from the magazine's archive — alongside items of clothing, Horst's papers, and film clips —  it explores Horst's creative efforts in collaboration with models, designers, artists and and stars like Marlene. 

Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to see all 94 of the covers Horst shot for Vogue, in addition to new exhibition prints of some of his colour work, printed from his original large-format transparencies.

The website about the exhibit includes fascinating information, including brief film footage of Marlene's friend, Alexander Liberman (whose photographs of her were published in 1993's An Intimate Photographic Memoir).  Anna Wintour has penned a forward to Susanna Brown's book, which accompanies the exhibit.

Across the pond, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts explores the combination of jewellery and fashion during Hollywood's golden age. 

Fittingly, one of Marlene's costumes from Desire, in which she played the chicest of jewel thieves, is on show. (The négligée, with its matching fur-trimmed cape — which, going by recent photos, looks like it may have been altered — is on loan from the FIDM Museum, who have several items from Dietrich's wardrobe in their collection.)

Also on show: a Travis Banton evening gown designed by Dietrich's costume collaborator for her one-time co-star, Anna May Wong; and a Schiaparelli dress that adorned the curves of Marlene's Paramount pal, Mae West. Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow and Carole Lombard are among the other stars represented.

The jewellery on view provide an opportunity to see the work of Trabert & Hoeffer-Mauboussin up close. The house, makers of Marlene's fabled suite of emerald jewellery, is represented by various items from the thirties to the fifties: notably, a multi-use platinum, emerald and sapphire necklace once owned by actress June Knight.

Hollywood Glamour: Fashion and Jewelry from the Silver Screen will be on show  until 8 March 2015. A book about The Jewels of Trabert & Hoeffer-Mauboussin draws on the museum's collection to chart the collaboration between the firms of Trabert & Hoeffer and Mauboussin during the thirties and forties.

(Updated: 4 October 2014)

Cornel Lucas Exhibition @ Fiorentini + Baker

My favorite Lucas shot--just a little flirtier than the more famous one exhibited

 Last year, missladiva reported on some Cornel Lucas prints of Marlene Dietrich on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Now, you New Yorkers have a chance to see them at Fiorentini + Baker through October 28.

As you will see, Dietrich is the star of the show at this exhibition and on Lucas' website. Time LightBox even features Marlene's face and Cornel's memories of her, another testimony of her perfectionism and directorial tendencies.

Funnily enough, Fiorentini + Baker is a shoe shop, and many of Lucas' images feature his subjects flaunting their footwear, including one of Dietrich on their flyer! Time LightBox also informs us that this is the first Lucas exhibition in New York, and I can't think of a more appropriate way for him to get his foot in the door.

Now, here's my question for you Dietrich scholars. Should these portraits of her be dated 1948? I thought they were taken for No Highway in the Sky, which was in production from October 1950-January 1951. Also, were they works made for hire (e.g., for 20th Century-Fox) or did Lucas take them as an independent contractor?

Banton. Dietrich. Angel.

The MDCB reported in their latest newsletter about the sale (by Christie's) of a collection of Travis Banton costume designs for Marlene.

The sketch for Marlene's famous "million grains of golden caviar" dress from Angel fetched $ 10 000. The other sketches offered in the auction included Banton's design for the "Hot Voodoo" number from Blonde Venus.


In 2011 we reported about an earlier sale, which included Banton's designs for The Scarlet Empress. One of these is now housed in the AMPAS' Margaret Herrick Library Production Art collection.


At their website, they have an interesting interview with Adele Balkan, from their Oral History Program. Balkan worked as sketch artist for Paramount in the 30s; it was she who designed the beading pattern for Marlene's Angel gown.


The Academy is currently presenting an exhibition (which will run until 5 February) celebrating Paramount Pictures' centenary . Further information is available at their website.

A Million Grains of Golden Caviar

That's what Diana Vreeland called this breathtaking, beaded gown when she exhibited it at the Metropolitan Museum in 1974 as part their Costume Institute's "Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design" retrospective.

The dress, designed by Travis Banton for Marlene to wear in Angel, was reportedly inspired by the mastery of Fabergé. It cost $8 000 to produce in 1937 -- too expensive for Paramount executives to allow Marlene to add this one to her personal collection, as was her usual custom. Altered, it appeared in several Paramount movies long after its original model had vacated her dressing room on the lot. By the 1990s, the gown was in such fragile condition that it required extensive restoration. It is said that the gown is now preserved in a private collection.

When Vreeland first contacted Marlene about the latter's old movie costumes, the star seemed less interested in golden caviar than in exactly who had told the ex-editor in which hotel she was currently staying:

UPDATE: To see a sketch of this costume, look here!

Dietrich rests again in Paris

From a WWD.com article, I caught wind of an Edward Steichen exhibition running at Paris' Jeu de Paume gallery until December 30th, 2007. Click on the exhibit photos, and you will spot a disembodied Anna May Wong, Dietrich's co-star in Shanghai Express, napping beside a chrysanthemum victim to the same fate. I won't feign any knowledge of Steichen and his work, other than the referenced Dietrich photo (posted above) and some others, including one here. In fact, this site led me to discover that Dietrich's Morocco co-stars, Gary Cooper and Adolphe Menjou, also posed for Steichen.

I've always appreciated Dietrich's lavish gestures and lustful lounging in these photos, but why plop a vase of carnations into this opulent scene? Those weeds might as well be in an old Coke bottle.