Très Parisien, 1925, No. 7, Pl. 7: Création REDFERN - CASINO 1925

Curator: Looking at "Tr\u00e8s Parisien, 1925, No. 7, Pl. 7: Creation REDFERN - CASINO" by G-P. Joumard, currently housed in the Rijksmuseum. This captivating watercolour illustration perfectly captures the Art Deco aesthetic. Editor: The colour palette and flat planes exude coolness, like a breeze, a fashionable chill from the Roaring Twenties, perfectly rendered. But how do the materials reflect that modernity? Curator: The choice of watercolour on paper lends itself well to the style, enabling those fluid lines and a certain delicacy that offsets the geometric shapes in her patterned garment. There is text below the illustration with the tantalizing note "Tissu de A. PREVOST, de Lyon", pointing at the social importance of luxury textiles. The illustration acts almost like an aspirational advertisement of this fashion house. Editor: Precisely! And that is a clue pointing to larger production systems and changing roles for women at the time. Luxury here wasn’t just about consumption but spoke of industrial development in France. Curator: Note, too, the strategic deployment of symbolism within the Art Deco framework: flowers hint at blossoming femininity but remain contained; geometric patterns offer a sharp, self-possessed image for this new liberated woman. And then, her clothing reflects on her role within an exclusive social event that, through symbolic references, conjures gambling and risk. Editor: The layering also draws my attention, from the flowers at her feet to the lavish white fur over the eye-catching black and green gown, and that remarkable, gravity-defying hat that mirrors it, there is also this sense of opulence and excess! You could literally map different trades from the materials alone. Curator: This print shows the evolving perception of women's roles: still ornamental perhaps, yet now occupying more public arenas—embracing leisure, dictating new fashions—becoming, essentially, tastemakers in an era of tremendous transformation. Editor: Right. From a study in consumption to means of production, and shifting gender roles--a striking interplay that goes far beyond just fashion in paper and pigments! Curator: I agree; its simple lines hold great power and hint at a complexity of influences. Editor: Exactly. It is about capturing material traces of culture for a long-lasting record of our habits.