Key Dates in Fashion and Commerce, 1851–89

Tétart-Vittu, Françoise; Groom, Gloria

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Key Dates in Fashion and Commerce, 1851–89

Françoise Tétart-Vittu and Gloria Groom

Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity

Key Dates in Fashion and Commerce, 1851–89

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Françoise Tétart-Vittu and Gloria Groom

PublisherArt Institute of Chicago

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23672

Key Dates in Fashion and Commerce, 1851–89

Françoise Tétart-Vittu and Gloria Groom

— 1851 —

MAY 1 The Great Exhibition opens in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London. The Gagelin boutique in Paris, located at 53, rue de Richelieu (also known as Opigez & Chazelle, after the names of its directors), wins the only medal for France in the category of Upper Clothing at the Great Exhibition, probably for designs made by Charles Frederick Worth (1825–1895). The previous year, Gagelin had allowed Worth to start a dressmaking department.

Gagelin becomes the only silk mercer to offer ready-made clothes when Worth creates ready-made muslin dress samples for his patrons. The clients choose a style, then Worth matches it to an appropriate fabric.

Although sewing machines had existed since the late eighteenth century, machinist Isaac Merritt Singer (1811–1875) made dramatic improvements in their practicality and ease of operation, and with New York lawyer Edward Clark (1811–1882) introduces a professional sewing machine (fig. 1). I. M. Singer & Co. will later become the Singer Manufacturing Company.

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FIG. 1. Wood engraving of the Singer sewing machine of 1851. From “The Sewing Machine,” The Scientific American, July 25, 1896, p. 73

— 1852 —

Founded as a small shop in 1838 by Aristide Boucicaut (1810–1877), Le Bon Marché is enlarged to become the first department store in France, with a specially designed building on the corner of rue de Sèvres and rue du Bac in Paris (fig. 2).

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FIG. 2. Le Bon Marché, 1869. Engraving. Musée Carnavalet, Paris P.M.V.P/Michel Toumazet

— 1853 —

MAY Octave-François Opigez-Gagelin inherits Gagelin from his father, F.-O. Opigez, and forms a new partnership with employees Ernest Walles and Charles Frederick Worth.

Emperor Napoléon III (1808–1873) marries the Spanish countess Eugénie de Montijo (1826–1920), who soon becomes a fashion leader. Fond of sports, Eugénie forges her own style. When not in her official role, she is usually seen wearing a black skirt and a red shirt called a “Garibaldi,” named for the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi. In addition to her dressmaker, Mademoiselle Palmyre, at the Tuileries Palace, Empress Eugénie would come to rely on the top seamstress at the House of Worth for her more extraordinary dresses and masked-ball costumes beginning in 1859.

— 1855 —

Inauguration of the department store Au Louvre with 50,000 visitors on its first day. It will later (1863) become Les Grands Magasins du Louvre (fig. 3).

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Description: Les Grands Magasins du Louvre

FIG. 3. Les Grands Magasins du Louvre, color lithograph, 1866. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, Estampes et Photographie, Va 232 c

The Exposition Universelle is held on the Champs-Elysées, Paris, with an emphasis on industrial exhibits. The dressmaking firm Gagelin (also known at that time as Opigez-Gagelin & Cie) wins the Grand Prize medal for its ready-to-wear dresses; France is the only country to offer ready-made clothes.

First known existence of paper patterns, known as “des modèles reproducteurs” (models for reproduction) at Opigez-Gagelin & Cie.

— 1856 —

In an attempt to resolve patent disputes and avoid expensive litigation, the American sewing machine companies unite as the Sewing Machine Trust. Members include Wheeler and Wilson Manufacturing Co., I. M. Singer & Co., Grover and Baker Sewing Machine Co., and Elias Howe.

Opening of the Bazar Parisien (later to be called Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville, or BHV), on the rue de Rivoli, where it still exists today.

Madame Roger, Empress Eugénie’s official seamstress, opens a boutique at 25, rue Louis le Grand near the Opéra.

Eighteen-year-old English chemist William H. Perkin (1838–1907) accidentally discovers a way to mass-produce a purplish color using by-products of coal tar (see fig. 4). Following his discovery of mauveine—the first synthetic organic dye—many new aniline dyes appear (some developed by Perkin himself), and factories producing them are constructed across Europe.

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FIG. 4. Silk dress, c. 1862, dyed with Perkin’s original aniline mauve dye. Science Museum, London

— 1858 —

JULY 1 Charles Frederick Worth leaves Opigez-Gagelin & Cie to establish, with the Swedish draper’s clerk Otto Gustaf Bobergh (1821–1882), the dressmaking shop Worth & Bobergh, at 7, rue de la Paix. For their foreign customers, mostly Americans, Worth establishes the custom of sewing brand labels into bespoke garments (see fig. 5), although it is not until 1884, when haute couture emerges, that designer branding becomes widespread.

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Description: Worth & Bobergh label on an evening dress

FIG. 5. Worth & Bobergh label on an evening dress, 1866/67. Stamped in gold on petersham ribbon waist stay. Museum of the City of New York, 62.190.1a–c

— 1859 —

Following a French victory in a bloody battle on June 4th in the town of Magenta, Italy, during the Franco-Austrian War (also known as the Second War of Italian Unification), a new red dye developed by chemist Edward Chambers Nicholson (1827–1890) is given the name magenta and catapulted into fashion.

— 1860 —

JANUARY 23 Adoption of a free-trade treaty between Great Britain and France. On the British side, this agreement reduced import taxes on wine and also on “articles de Paris et de Lyon,” meaning, in particular, fashionable items produced by the highly skilled, labor-intensive fashion industry.

The department store Le Bon Marché launches home delivery carriages, which advertise the name of the store on their sides (fig. 6).

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Description: Delivery of merchandise to and from Paris and the suburbs by Le Bon Marché

FIG. 6. Delivery of merchandise to and from Paris and the suburbs by Le Bon Marché, 1889. Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris

— 1862 —

The International Exhibition is held in South Kensington, London. Gagelin, despite Charles Frederick Worth’s departure four years earlier, is awarded a first-class medal with a remarkable selection of Japanese textiles and objects that were a novelty at the time.

— 1863 —

The department store Au Louvre is renamed Les Grands Magasins du Louvre. It is one of the models, along with Le Bon Marché, that Émile Zola will use as the prototype in his novel Au bonheur des dames (see 1883 below). Expansion and reopening of the department store À la Place Clichy.

First listing of the couturier Émile Pingat (1820–1901) in the Bottin du commerce (directory of commerce, an early yellow pages) as “E. Pingat, Hudson and Company, 30, rue Louis le Grand, near the Opéra.” A rival to Worth as a designer and as a tastemaker, the dressmaker Pingat (see fig. 7) also specializes in outerwear, such as opera coats, jackets, and mantles.

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Description: Dinner dress by Pingat, Emile

FIG. 7. Émile Pingat (French, 1820–1901), Dinner dress, 1878. Silk brocade, lace, and silk satin. Chicago History Museum, gift of Mr. Albert J. Beveridge III. 1976.270.1a–b

— 1864 —

Charles Frederick Worth is listed in the directory of commerce as an official purveyor to Empress Eugénie.

— 1865 —

MAY 11 Jules Jaluzot (1834–1916) launches the department store Au Printemps at the corner of boulevard Haussmann and the rue de Provence (fig. 8). He is the first to sell an exclusive black silk for dresses known paradoxically as “Marie-Blanche.”

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Description: Au Printemps department store, boulevard Haussmann and rue de Provence, Paris

FIG. 8. Au Printemps department store, boulevard Haussmann and rue de Provence, 1865

— 1867 —

At the Exposition Universelle in Paris, Gagelin exhibits its ready-made dresses on mannequins in cases (see fig. 9 for its designs). Other boutiques show fabrics as well as ready-to-wear garments, although luxury design shops, like the House of Worth, do not exhibit.

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Description: Gagelin fashion showcase at the 1867 Exposition Universelle, presenting a dress...

FIG. 9. The Gagelin showcase at the 1867 Exposition Universelle, presenting a dress chosen by the Austrian empress, in a style called “Eugénie” or “princess style.” From La Vie Parisienne. Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris

Elias Howe’s sewing machine wins a gold medal at the Exposition.

— 1868 —

Creation of the Chambre Syndicale des Confectionneurs et des Tailleurs pour Dames, the first union for seamstresses and dressmakers. In 1910 it will become the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.

The store À la Ville de Saint Denis, on the rue du Faubourg Saint Denis near the Gare de l’Est (fig. 10), offers 20,000 paper patterns of all the models prepared by their dressmaking workshop.

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Description: Department store A la Ville de Saint Denis, Paris

FIG. 10. The department store À la Ville de Saint Denis, Paris. From Le Monde Illustré, 1878

Following the phenomenon of department stores in Paris and New York—including the opening of Macy’s (1858), A. T. Stewart’s “Iron Palace” (1862), and B. Altman and Co. (1865)—in Chicago, Field, Leiter and Co. opens in a six-story building at the northeast corner of State and Washington Streets. It will become Marshall Field and Co. in 1881 and will remain Marshall Field’s until the firm’s acquisition by Macy’s, Inc., in 2005.

Emergence of new technological developments in the manufacture of corsets, such as the steam-molding process, that, after 1876, allowed corsets to be produced in the longer, hip-covering “princess-line” style.

— 1869 —

SEPTEMBER 9 Due to great success, the second expansion of Le Bon Marché by Aristide Boucicaut (1810–1877) and his wife, Marguerite (1816–1887) begins.

Opening of the department store À la Paix on the rue du Dix-Décembre (in 1870, the street is renamed the rue du Quatre-Septembre).

August Destory patents his sewing machine for boots.

Gustave Janet (1829–?) launches the magazine La Mode Artistique with color lithograph fashion plates.

— 1871 —

During the siege of Paris, many designers, including Worth and Madame Maugas, organize ambulances for the men protecting the city. Department stores remain open, but some, like Les Grands Magasins du Louvre (located on the rue de Rivoli) and Pygmalion (on the rue Saint-Denis) are damaged by fires.

Due to the Franco-Prussian War, Le Moniteur de la Mode is issued in Brussels by the associated publication Le Journal des Dames et des Demoiselles and each issue features hand-colored fashion prints. The wood engravings of La Mode Illustrée are printed in Berlin for the newspaper Victoria. Distributed weekly, La Mode Illustrée becomes one of the most popular French fashion periodicals.

— 1872 —

Newlyweds Ernest Cognacq (1839–1928) and Marie-Louise Jay (1838–1925) launch the department store La Samaritaine, near the Pont-Neuf. They will continue to expand La Samaritaine throughout the rest of the century until it eventually becomes the largest department store in Paris. It will close its doors in 2005.

Publication of La Mode Miniature by Adolphe Goubaud, a weekly illustrated fashion magazine (see fig. 11) that measured only 12.1 by 15.2 centimeters (4 ¾ by 6 inches).

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FIG. 11. La Mode Miniature 1 (July 7, 1872)

— 1874 —

An exhibition on historic costumes at the Union Centrale des Beaux Arts Appliqués à l’Industrie comprises over 6,000 garments from numerous institutions and collectors.

Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898) launches the illustrated fashion magazine La Dernière Mode, written entirely by him and subscribed to mostly by the members of his intellectual circle (see fig. 12).

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Description: Cover of La Dernière Mode 2

FIG. 12. Cover of La Dernière Mode 2 (September 20, 1874)

The embroiderer and dress trimmer Léon Sault creates the Agence Générale de la Mode, Cabinet de Dessins de Figurines de Mode et de Journaux Specialisés Pour Couturiers.

Beginning of the expansion of La Samaritaine department store.

— 1875 —

Aristide Boucicaut, owner of the department store Le Bon Marché, opens an in-store gallery of fine arts for painting and sculpture exhibitions. According to Émile Zola, Boucicaut exhibited second-rate contemporary artists.

— 1876 —

MAY 6 John Wanamaker opens his eponymous dry good emporium and clothiers in Philadelphia in a former railroad station. Wanamaker’s will often be called the “Grand Depot.” In 1896 he will purchase the former A. T. Stewart department store building in New York and open the first Wanamaker’s outside Philadelphia.

Ernest Hoschedé (died 1891), one of the first and most enthusiastic collectors of Impressionist work, especially that of Claude Monet, whom he commissioned in 1876 to paint four decorative panels for the Château de Rottembourg (including Turkeys; fig. 13), is made director of the store La Compagnie des Indes, specializing in imported cashmeres and silks.

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FIG. 13. Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926), Turkeys, 1877. Oil on canvas; 174 × 172.5 cm (68 ½ × 67 15⁄16 in.). Musée d’Orsay, Paris, RF 1944 18

The Sewing Machine Trust (see 1856 above) is dissolved, and the competition among the dominant manufacturers intensifies.

— 1877 —

Death of Aristide Boucicaut, founder of Le Bon Marché. His widow and son assume control of the store, which then had a workforce of 1,800 employees.

— 1878 —

At the Exposition Universelle, Paris, a new silhouette is introduced. It is known as the “mermaid” style for its frilled and flounced fishtail train and tight, tied-back skirt, shaped by a low, small bustle, or tournure, in the back.

Dressmaker Émile Pingat introduces evening cloaks called visites, for which he will become famous (see fig. 14).

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Description: Evening cloak by Pingat, Emile

FIG. 14. Émile Pingat (French, 1820–1901), Evening cloak, 1885–89. Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009, anonymous gift in memory of Mrs. John Roebling, 1970, 2009.300.484

— 1880 —

The department store Le Palais de la Nouveauté (see fig. 15), founded by Jacques François Crespin (1824–1888), is the first to offer all of its items for sale on credit.

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Description: Le Palais de la Nouveauté by Laas, H.

FIG. 15. H. Laas. Le Palais de la Nouveauté. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, Estampes et Photographie

Creation of the newspaper L’Art et la Mode by a group of artists at the invitation of Ernest Hoschedé. It will feature short items and illustrations on fashion by the Impressionists and other celebrated painters of the day (see fig. 16).

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Description: L'Art et la Mode 42, pp. 8-9

FIG. 16. L’Art et la Mode 42 (September 15, 1883), pp. 8–9

— 1881 —

Opening of the Parisian store of the English dressmaker Charles Poynter Redfern (1853–1929) at 242, rue de Rivoli. He becomes known for dressing Alexandra, the Princess of Wales (1844–1925) when he is named Dressmaker by Royal Appointment in 1888.

— 1882 —

Édouard Manet (1832–1883) paints In the Conservatory (1878–79; Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), his friend Jules Guillemet and his fashionable wife. Guillemet would go on to open the fashion boutique Aux Montagnes Russes, at 19, rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, in 1883.

The Union Centrale des Beaux Arts Appliqués à l’Industrie and the Société du Musée des Arts Décoratifs merge to form the Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs. Located on the rue de Rivoli, it is dedicated to the collection of decorative arts, textiles, and costume. In 1905, this group will create the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

Closing of the department store La Paix on the rue du Quatre-Septembre (fig. 17).

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FIG. 17. “Grands Magasins de la Paix,” c. 1879. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, Estampes et Photographie, Va 236 e

— 1883 —

Au bonheur des dames, a novel by Émile Zola, which was published serially in Le Gil Blas between December 17, 1882 and March 1, 1883, is released in book form by the Librairie Charpentier in Paris (see fig. 18). Based on extensive research on the department stores Le Bon Marché and Les Grands Magasins du Louvre, it is the first work to describe this new cultural phenomenon, including the life of the employees, the strategies of merchandising, the rise to power of a store owner, and the demise of the independent boutique.

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Description: First page of Au bonheur des dames manuscript by Zola, Emile

FIG. 18. The first page of the manuscript of Émile Zola’s Au bonheur des dames. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, Manuscrits, NAF 10275, folio 1

Etienne Poussineau, known simply as Félix (1841–1930), a dressmaker at 15, rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, hires the future fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin (1867–1946), as a milliner’s apprentice.

— 1884 —

Creation of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Française to protect the rights of seamstresses—including providing for their insurance and pensions.

Access to credit allows more people to purchase sewing machines; competition helps keep prices low and improves the fashion industry. For the first time, a local labor union (composed of independent tailors and seamstresses) acquires its own machines.

Manufacturing of ready-made clothing spreads to many areas of France.

Founding of the fashion house of Ernest Raudnitz at 23, rue Louis le Grand. It is especially popular among American customers.

— 1885 —

MAY 23 Alfred-Hippolyte Chauchard (1821–1909) retires from the directorship of Les Grands Magasins du Louvre. The fortune Chauchard made from the department store allows him to acquire a significant collection of Barbizon paintings, most of which are now in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

The House of Rouff, at 13, boulevard Haussmann, becomes one of the most famous fashion shops in Paris. On its label Rouff uses a signature, copying Worth’s innovation.

— 1886 —

Georges Seurat (1859–1891) completes A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884 (cat. 137), which is shown in the last Impressionist exhibition. In his final campaign on the painting, Seurat increases the size of the bustle to reflect the fashion trends of that year, when the dimension of the bustle reached its apogee (fig. 19).

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Description: A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884, detail showing three different depictions of...

FIG. 19. Detail of A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884 (cat. 137), showing Seurat’s three different depictions of the bustle

— 1887 —

Completion of the construction of the Marshall Field’s wholesale store on Franklin Street between Quincy and Adams Streets in Chicago (fig. 20).

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Description: Marshall Field's wholesale store, Chicago

FIG. 20. Henry H. Richardson, architect (1838–1886), Marshall Field’s wholesale store, Chicago, 1885–87 (now demolished)

Expansion of Le Bon Marché to include seventy-four different sales counters.

— 1888 —

Georges Jules Dufayel (1855–1916) assumes ownership of the department store Le Palais de la Nouveauté. In 1890 he will change its name to Grands Magasins Dufayel.

— 1889 —

At the Exposition Universelle in Paris, the exhibitors include forty-six department stores and shops specializing in fashion, attesting to the extraordinary international growth and pervasive presence of fashion in contemporary life.

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