The exhibition “La mode en modèles” on view from November 6, 2024
to February 26, 2025, presents a selection from the museum’s collection
of photographic deposits of fashion models. More than one hundred
photographs, drawings, films, and haute couture dresses provide
an overview of Parisian fashion creation during the Roaring Twenties, from
1917 to 1939. These often overlooked images, crucial to the legal protection
of fashion houses, offer a detailed look at the work of major couturiers, from
the Callot sisters to Jeanne Paquin, from Jeanne Lanvin to Elsa Schiaparelli,
including Madeleine Vionnet and Jean Patou. They allow us to trace the
evolution of fashion innovation and aesthetics during this iconic period.
Models deposits, a component of industrial property along with patents
and trademarks, were filed with labor courts or court registries until 1979
to legally protect a creation and act against copying. Their creation during
the First World War was aimed at combating the “fashion pirates”, smugglers
and imitators who were rampant in France and abroad. Lawsuits reported
in the press, such as that of Madeleine Vionnet in the early 1920s, solidified
the practice. Until the late 1930s, couturiers had their new creations
photographed from every angle.
A model deposit could be a collection of several photographs or the result
of a photographic system that combined lenses or mirrors to capture
the different facets of the outfit: front, back, profile. Attracting a specific
category of photographers, often professional studios or portraitists, or even
famous figures such as Man Ray or Thérèse Bonney, these deposits illustrate
the importance of photography in the fashion industry and the protection
of intellectual property.