OCTOBER 13, 2007 - JANUARY 5, 2008
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Main Rousseau
Bocher (1891-1976) was born in Chicago and studied at the
University of Chicago and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.
After serving in WWI, he became a fashion illustrator at
Harper’s Bazaar and then the editor of French Vogue.
In homage to the designers Louiseboulanger and Augustabernard,
whom he greatly admired, he changed his name to the
French-sounding Mainbocher in 1929 when he became the first
American to open his own couture house in Paris. He achieved
immediate success, especially among fashionable Americans such
as Wallis Simpson, who wore a Mainbocher dress when she married
the Duke of Windsor. Mainbocher’s style was classic, even somewhat conservative, but always elegant and extremely expensive. “He not only made a woman look like a lady, but as if her mother had been a lady too,” declared fashion editor Sally Kirkland. Mainbocher’s clothes were characterized by luxurious materials and fine workmanship, and were exquisitely finished both inside and out. He loathed Schiaparelli’s flamboyance, but greatly admired Vionnet, whose craftsmanship influenced his designs. In addition to the evening dress shown here, which Mrs. A. Watson Armour III wore to Chicago’s Assembly Ball. Chic Chicago features two of his impeccably tailored suits. It was said that a suit and blouse of his “cost as much as a half year’s tuition and board at Harvard.” Mainbocher himself summed up his philosophy by saying: “Suitability is half the secret of being well-dressed.” |
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| Mainbocher, evening dress, c.1938, France, gift of Mrs. A. Watson Armour III, photograph by Irving Solero | ||||||