Très Parisien, 1926, No. 2, pag. 2: La Mode en Général 1926

This is an image from a 1926 issue of Très Parisien, a French fashion magazine, so it's a lithograph, probably printed using stencils, and I can imagine the artist, G-P. Joumard, hunched over the drawing, carefully delineating the shapes of the garments. Look at these women and their outfits: it's all about the silhouette. We can sense the artist thinking about line and form, playing with the contrast between soft curves and sharp angles. These frocks, though, are the opposite of the heavy drapery of the turn of the century. They are flimsy, almost weightless. I'm thinking of other artists who played with fashion in their work – Sonia Delaunay, perhaps, or even some of the Italian Futurists, like Giacomo Balla. They were all part of this conversation, this back-and-forth, across time and space. The result is playful and full of movement.