The "théâtre de la mode" as a pioneering marketing strategy

Fashion also adapted to the war constraints through hybridization with theatre and thus managed to counteract the disastrous economic impacts of rationing partly. In France, the "Théâtre de la mode"  (aka Fantasy of fashion) exemplifies the plasticity of the fashion industry.

One of the first road shows to present designer clothes on two hundred 70-cms dolls throughout the world (notably Europe and the USA), it was initiated by the Chambre Syndicale de Haute Couture de Paris and featured designs by Elsa Schiaparelli, Hermès, Jean Patou, Jeanne Lanvin, Nina Ricci, etc. The mixture of theatre and fashion designs was not only conveyed by the intricate sceneries (i.e. no less than 13 different settings reproducing emblematic places in Paris, and located at The Pavilion de Marsan, actual Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris) but also by the collaboration with painters, musicians, stage directors, and decorators (Jean Cocteau, André Beaurepaire, Henry Sauguet, Emili I Grau-Sala, Boris Kochno…). The link below shows that each scene was entrusted to a different stage director and bore a different name. Audiences just walked by each décor to appreciate the designs. 

But merging fashion, arts and performing arts like theatre does not necessarily make a fashion show performative. If performativity criteria will be explored in Unit II, the 1980s fashion shows, which focused on the spectacular, may provide some interesting clues.