Art Nouveau was an international style from 1890-1914 that emphasized unified design and innovative materials and forms. Key designers like Paquin in Paris and Worth created fashion for international clients. Paquin directed fashion sections at world's fairs to promote her couture house. Lucile also promoted her fashion through staged shows and dressing celebrities. Designs drew inspiration from natural forms and exotic cultures like the Ballets Russes. Poiret created simple silhouettes with lavish surfaces. Artists like Mucha and the Wiener Werkstätte collaborated with fashion. The style saw revivals in the 1960s and influenced modern designers.

1. Art Nouveau
Fashion 1890-1914
Dr Clare Rose
The Royal School of Needlework
Design by Jeanne
Paquin, 1911 V&A
E.2060-1957

2. Art Nouveau and Fashion
 International style
 Unified design,
‘Gesamtkunstwerk’
 Innovative forms and
materials
 Exoticism
 Gender ambiguity
Hector Guimard, metro entrance, Paris, 1900
Worth, velvet evening dress, MMA 1976-258

3. International Clients
Mrs Potter
Palmer in Worth,
Chicago, 1900
(CHS)
Mrs Walker, in
lace Long Island,
1901
MMA 1980.590

4. Mary Leiter Curzon, wife of Viceroy of India
1901-4
(Kedleston House, National Trust)
For the Coronation Durbar, 1903, dress woven
of Indian cloth of gold
Made up by Worth, founded by first ‘named’
couturier
The House of Worth, 1858-1954

5. Selling design
Worth sold designs throughout Europe, keeping records
‘l’Arlesienne’, 1912; studio sample and versions for Queen Maud
of Norway and Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain

6. Fashion at International Exhibitions
Grunwaldt’s furs exhibit, Franco-British exhibition 1908 (NAL)

7. Evening dress shown in the
Palais de la Couture, Paris
1900
Boué soeurs: Robe Empire,
peau de cygne bleu ciel,
peinte et brodée de roses de
différents tons. Fond rose
voile de dentelle blanche;
guirlandes de glycine mauve
jetées sur l’ épaule et
enroulant la traine

8. Paquin: leader of French couture
Jeanne Paquin, director of leading Paris couture house since 1891
1900 Paris Exhibition, Paquin directed fashion section
1911 Turin Exhibition, Paquin had separate pavilion
1913 Madame Paquin awarded Legion of Honour
Henri Gervex,
Cinq Heures Chez
Paquin, 1906

9. Madame Paquin as her own model
Original sketch and illustration of
finished dress, Outfit shown in the
Palais de la Couture, 1900 V&A
E.341-1957

10. Lucile and the art of self-promotion
Lucile, fashion album, 1904 ‘Timeless grace of a day that is
dead’, V&A
Lily Elsie dressed by Lucile in The Merry Widow, 1908, V&A

11. Lucile , staged fashion show in salon c1910 V&A

12. lace wedding
corset , 1905 V&A
Beaded serpent
stocking, 1900
V&A

13. Worth opera cloak detail 1897-1900 V&A T.86-1991
Callot evening dress detail, 1910 MMA 1981.380.2

14. Natural forms in jewellery
Lalique hair comb, horn and silver 1903 V&A M.116-1966
Lalique belt buckle, 1897 M.111-1966

15. Alphonse Mucha, poster showing Sarah
Bernhardt as Medea, V&A
Alphonse Mucha and Georges Fouquet,
snake bracelet for Sarah Bernhardt ,
1899 (Sakai City Museum, Japan)

16. Exoticism: Ballets Russes
Exoticism: Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes

17. Print by George Barbier: a scene from Scheherazade, staged by
the Ballets Russes in 1911 with designs by Bakst V&A S.15-2001

18. Originality and copying: Paul Poiret
Paul Poiret , dress ‘sorbet’, 1912 V&A T.385-1976
Madame Handley Seymour, sorbet copy, V&A E.916-1968
Anonymous, evening dress 1916 V&A T.165-1960

19. Poiret: lavish surfaces and simple cut
‘Robe minute’ by Poiret,
figured silk, 1911 V&A
T.118-1975
Coat of printed velvet
designed by Raoul Dufy for
Poiret, 1919 (Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York)

20. Artists and Dress Reform
Living room of Charles Rennie
and Margaret Macdonald
Mackintosh, Glasgow
Dress by Jessie Newbery for
Mrs Baillie Scott, 1902
(Manchester Museums)
‘the refinement and austerity of the artistic atmosphere prevailing here
does not reflect the ordinariness that fills so much of our lives…an
ordinary person…would look out of place wearing simple working
clothes in this fairy tale world’.
Muthesius, Das Eigenkleid der Frau , 1904
‘

21. Hand printed silk blouse, textile by Ugo Zovetti,
cut by Eduard Wimmer-Wisgrill, sold by the
Wiener Werkstätte, 1914 V&A T.47-2004
Gustav Klimt, portrait of Emilie Flöge, 1902,
Vienna Museums
Wiener Werkstätte

22. Art Nouveau revivals, 1966
Poster for Elliott boots in Beardsley style, 1966 V&A E.12-1967

23. Men’s ties, 1966-70, V&A

24. Bonded cellulose ‘paper’
dress, by Dispo (Meyersohn &
Silverstein Ltd), London, 1967
V&A T.176 1986

25. ART NOUVEAU
FASHION
Clare Rose