1913 Gazette du Bon Ton Fashion Plate, Robe pour Deauville

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The Gazette du Bon Ton, put out by the retailer of the same name, was considered the trendsetting magazine of … Read more The Gazette du Bon Ton, put out by the retailer of the same name, was considered the trendsetting magazine of the era. Founded by Lucien Vogel and targeting Paris's upper class, it ran from 1912-1925. Only ten colour plates were printed per issue, and artists vied for the prestige of illustrating the latest Parisian fashion and lifestyle trends. As these pochoirs attest, the high style and iconic femininity made the items featured in the pages "must have's" -- right down to the elegant parasol!

This pochoir - created when single layers of color are added by hand to a lithograph using a stencil - is a plate from the eighth issue published in June 1913. It shows a woman in a her dress for a day out to Deauville, illustrated by Paul Méras for the French couturier Buzenet. From what I could find on Buzenet, it was a couture house from the early 1900s to 1910s who made everything from tea gowns to theatre costumes to kimono coats - complete with fur trims and intricate embroidery. Marianne Buzenet bought the Parisian couture house Kerteux Soeurs and turned it into a successful business. In 1908, the couture house Buzenet moved to a mansion 4 rue de la Boétie and was later dubbed "le temple de la haute couture" (the temple of haute couture) by Le Figaro. See less