“In 1928, in his book Au pays des mannequins, Louis Roubaud describes the daily lives and stories of a few fitting room models—those who worked on fittings, presentations to clients, and photo shoots for fashion collections. Only their first names are mentioned, evidence that, until World War II, models were often condemned to anonymity.
Some, however, were noticed and broke out of the fitting room to walk in fashion shows and appear in press photographs, such as Sonia Colmer for Vionnet or Ann-Emily Lacey for Rouff.”

“Bella Ariel, a fitting room model for Jeanne Lanvin starting in 1934 and later a star model, also posed for Man Ray, Dora Kallmus, and Boris Lipnitzki. During the Occupation, she continued to walk the runway, but in 1943, after being denounced, she was arrested by the anti-Jewish police and murdered at the Auschwitz extermination camp.”

“In the April 5, 1933 issue of Vu magazine, couturiers spoke out about counterfeiting. Jeanne Lanvin declared: You cannot ignore the tremendous amount of work, research and expense that goes into creating a new collection. This immense effort, demanded of us at least four times a year, requires nonstop daily labor on behalf of us, our collaborators, our workers, the moral and material cost of which you know.’ In his book Au secours de la couture (1929), journalist Georges Le Fèvre calculates that counterfeiters can put together a ‘collection” for 100,000 francs where a couturier spends 8 million.”

Founded in 1905, the Chéruit fashion house went through several name changes, at one point bringing together Louise Chéruit, Louise Boulanger, and Julie-Joséphine Wormser. Beginning in 1923, Wormser ran the house on her own. The press described it as a fashion house with a distinctly “Parisian” aesthetic—simple and modern. Among the many design archives of the Chéruit fashion house, some photographs feature a model of color. Just like
Chéruit, Schiaparelli and Poiret hired models of color as early as the 1920s.

In her book Ce que J’ai vu en chiffonnant la clientèle (1938), Maggy Rouff sheds a different light on the counter-fason: “The work of a great fashion designer cannot be copied, because it is not just about the shape, the fabric, and the accessories of a dress; above all, it is about adapting that dress to the body of the person who will wear it. And that is what makes it inimitable, ” The imitation of a creation for personal, non-commercial purposes—just like inspiration—is not considered by fashion designers to be counterfeiting.”

“Vionnet was a leading figure in the defense of couture. Having initiated various major lawsuits, she created the Association pour la défense des arts plastiques et appliqués in 1922, headed by the director of her house, Louis Dangel. The association took the name of Protection artistique des industries saisonnières in 1929 until its integration into the Chambre syndicale de la couture parisienne in 1943. Its aim was to fight against copies and to register designs. Vionnet filed numerous portfolios there spanning her production from 1918 to 1939.”

“Henri Manuel opened a studio specializing in portraiture in 1900. Thanks to a celebrity clientele, his success was significant enough to warrant creating a press service to distribute his images. He also worked in fashion from 1906 until the Second World War, serving clients such as Chanel, Lanvin, Patou, Poiret, and Schiaparelli. This photograph must have been taken in the photographer’s studio and its features, particularly the format, suggest that it was not originally intended for a design registration. Henri Manuel also ran a gallery that exhibited contemporary art in all its forms, including fashion and photography.”

“Man Ray made his first steps in fashion photography in 1922 on the advice of Poiret. Hence followed many years of collaboration with magazines such as Vogue, Femina and Harper’s Bazaar with an artistic and innovative approach. This design registration – made for the brand Re-Sport, founded by the stylist and photographer Ré Soupault, a friend of Man Ray – shows another aspect of his work, more documentary and less inventive, corresponding to the nature of an image intended for the industrial tribunal rather than the press.”

TISSUS SIMULTANÉS OF SONIA DELAUNAY : Sonia Delaunay’s decorative production consists of bookbindings, furniture textiles, and clothing. She had already been working on her simultaneous fabrics for a decade when she decided to produce them starting in 1923. Her advertising concept clearly states that her fabrics are patented and registered. Her registrations, filed between 1924 and 1926, Include the words: ‘In all fabrlos, any material and any color. Text is important in design registrations: it complements the photograph and indicates possible variations in order to prevent interpretations, thus strengthening claims in the case of lawsuits against counterfelters.”

Sources : Musée des arts décoratifs of Paris and Deepl (translation from French to English) and my photos of the exhibition i took in November 2024.

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