Ballet Russes

 

Ballet Russes was a company that was made in 1909 by Serge Diaghilev , serge had already gained success in Paris in 1908 when he introduced a season of opera, music and Russian art among the people, serge was invited back to perform a opera and a ballet.

The company was connected at the Theatre Mogador and Theatre Du Chatelet in Paris.


Later on after the company moved to Monte Carlo they moved back in 1910.


The original members of ballet Russes where from


Tsar's Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg and was all trained to a high standard of dance. The company had taken part of dances that are famous now by the choreographers like Bronislava Nijinska, Marius Petipa, Leonide Massine, Michel Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, and George Balanchine when he was starting out. Diaghilev’s company became one of the influential dance companies of the 20^th century because of the contemporary dancer teachers, the artists, the composers and dancers.


In 1914 a dancer called Leonide Massine joined the dance company ballet Russes. The show called “the one act ballet” was premiered in April 16 and choreographed by Fokine, the premier was also was for another one act ballet Fokine did at the La Légende de Joseph.


A month later in May 26^th there was another premier performance called The Nightingale this piece was choreographed by a man called Boris Romanov. AT the end of the summer Fokine had another premier for a dance called Midas.




The dance company came to America in 1916, it was the only tour that the ballet Russes ever danced in the U.S, the very first show was in New York.

It was the first time for American public to watch Russian ballet except for the people who had been aboard. After touring round America they ended up back in New York in April 3^rd 1916 in the metropolitan opera house.










A dancer called Nijinsky didnt join the ballet russes tour until half way through that ment he was out of practise and as he didnt join until half way through a dancer called Lonide Massine was dancing his roles,Diaghilev gave over his company to a man callet otto khan as Diaghilev told khan about another tour in the USA but khan said that nijinsky had to be included in the company.


while Diaghilev retired for the rest of the year he got a invirtaion for the company to peroform at for King Alfonso of Spain’s in madrid this was a great oppertunity for the summer season.


in may the 6 they company went back to europe on a ship filled with horses and ballet russes dancers. world war 1 was still fighting it was a threat for them to set home. The first perfromance in madrid was in 1916 may the 26th the king was at every performance they did the europian season was finshed in september 8 1916 and the set away again to america for another tour while Diaghilev stayed in rome.


the last tour ballet russes did was in 1929 was in london and paris in july the 26th


Diaghilev died in Venice Italy in 1929 August the 19th and was buried on a island of San Michele in the San Michele Cemetery.

Elsa Schiaparelli

Elsa Schiaparelli was born in 10Th of September in 1890 .As long aside Coco Chanel  her rival , Elsa was a fashion icon also in both worlds wars. Elsa was born at the Palazzo in Rome  her dad was the dean of a university in Rome and her mum was Neapolitan aristocrat so she was born in a well known family, she was also a niece of a man who discovered the canali of Mars.


The house of Schiaparelli shut down in 1954 December the very same year when Coco Chanel came back on the scene , at the age 64 Elsa wrote out a bio about her self  and lived in her house in Tunisia and Paris and sadly passed away in 1973 in novemeber Elsa was a well known and respected fashion designer that was big in the world war times.






Elsa studied philosophy at the University of Rome where her dad was the dean of.Elsa led a good life with luxury's especially when she had her parents that provided for her with there wealth and first class social status. Elsa removed her self from the luxury's and moved to New York and Paris as she thought the luxury was ruining her art and creativity.


on the way to London Elsa was invited to a dance in Paris having no dress to wear , she went of and brought a midnight blue fabric and started pinning it to fit her shape and body, while she was in London most of her time was spent looking round at museums and lectures she went of to marry one of the lectures a man called William de Wendt de Kerlor a Franco-Swiss theosophist and they moved to New York in 1921


when she was in Paris Elsa started making her own clothes and was encouraged by the famous designer Paul Poiret, Elsa grow up a company of her own but it sadly closed in 1926, after that she started to design knitwear and made a knitwear collection in the beginning of 1927 using a stitch that was made by american refuges. her very first design was featured in vogue and from then her company took off but only because of the pattern that gave the conclusion that there was a scarf wrapped round your neck.

Elsa's collection called Pour le Sport started expanding and making clothes such as swimming suits,ski clothes and linen dresses. The clothes she designed for tennis players shocked the public when it was worn by a women called Lili de Alvarez at Wimbledon playoffs in 1931 , Elsa expanded her clothes range even more by adding evening wear to it in 1931 and her company became stronger each time. Because of the war between Germany and France there was a spring collection called the trench which featured the colors brown and camouflage prints after the war between france and Germany in 1940 June 14Th Elsa went to New York and stayed there until the war was over from being away fro so long she had seen that the fashion had changed with the Christian Dior new style from the post war fashion.

Madeline Vionnet

Madeline Vionnet was born in Born June 22nd in Chilleurs-aux-Bois Loiret in 1876 she was a french fashion designer ( queen of the bias cut) as born in a un-wealthy family Vionnet started seam stressing at the age of 11.
Vionnet got married when she was 18 and  got divorced ,then went of to work in a hospital as a seam stress for them. when Madeline Vionnet was in London  she became a fitter for Kate Reily


  Madeline Vionnet went back to Paris and trained with a fashion house Callot Soeurs and then later on with Jacques Doucet. Madeline Vionnet founded her own fashion house called Vionnet in 1912 the house of Vionnet grow and she employed more then 1,000 seamstress's . Vionnet introduced the bias cut In 1920,it was a  technique for cutting cloth diagonally Vionnet's use of the bias cut to create a slim body look.

Vionnet would think that if a women smiled then her dress should smile too.Madeleine was a trend setter and her designs where often imtiaited in the 1935. Madeleine became famous because of showing off the women figgers in dresses.she got her inspiration by the Greek art. where her dresses flowed around the body to make a the person shape.


In 1930 Madeleine Vionnet became so popular famous people like Kathrine Hepburn,Marlene Dietric and Greta Garbo.Madeleine would use fabric like crêpe de chine, gabardine, and satin to make her clothes to give the soft affect in her clothing she would order fabric 2 yard bigger then she needed to  make drapes in her dresses mostly she would drape the luxurious  style dresses that where simple and modern. Vionnet's most  important impact on the fashion industry  was the design in mass production.unlike most designers Vionnet had worked as a seamstress for a hospital and was able to make her designs for the retail markets.
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Because of world war 2 Vionnet had to close down her fashion house in 1939  and became  a mentor for the later designers passing on her timeless styles. today Vionnet is seen as one of the most  influential designers in the 20Th century , sadly Madeleine Vionnet died on the 2nd of march 1975.

in 1988 couple of years later Vionnet's house of fashion was reopened by the family called Lummen that specializes in accessories and luxury stuff. in 2006 well after  Madeleine Vionnet died the house of fashion Vionnet employed a new directer designer Sophia kokosalaki and lunched an clothing rage spring summer collection of 2007 its first clothing collection i over 67 years.

Coco Chanel Pierre Wertheimer

Coco Chanel  real name (Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel )  was born in august  the 19^th 1883 and her birthplace was in a place called Saumur she claimed that she was born in 1993 and born in Auvergne.

Her mother past away when she was 12 and left her dad with 5 children to look after and then quickly gave away his children to relatives, Coco Chanel was gave away to a orphanage of the catholic monastery of Aubazine, were she learnt how the trade works in seamstress. Most of her school holidays where spent with her relatives in provincial capital of Moulin’s where Chanel learnt to sew with more softness and flawlessly. At the age of 18 Chanel left the orphanage and worked for a local tailor.

Chanel adopted the name Coco Chanel after her brief carrier of being a cafe and concert singer in the years 1905-1908, Coco was a mistress of a rich military officer and then was a mistress of an English industrialist, Chanel opened up a millinery shop in Paris in 1910 making it much bigger to Deauville and Biarritz both of her partners helped her gain more popular by introducing women from the society and her hats become quite popular.


Coco Chanel claimed that when her mum dies her dad went to america and she got given to her two horrible aunts she also told people that she was born in 1993 and that her mum died when she was 6 she did all this to hide her life as she didn't really like the truth about it.
in 1920 Chanel became the first to design loose  wear for women clothes jerseys it was like the men tradition underwear, making it more relaxing for women to wear instead of wearing corsets that where hard and stiff this became very popular , her short skirts and casual looks where the opposite to the perviouse corset wear that was given long before.

In 1922 Chanel  had brought out a perfume called Chanel N0 5 which was very popular and remained popular through out are generation a man called Pierre Wertheimer took 70% of the business to do with the fragrance and company in 1924.


In 1925  Coco Chanel made her signature cardigan  jacket and then later on followed it with the little black dress (LBD).
 in world war 2 she became one of the nurses evan tho her popularity went down after she was having a  affair with the Nazi officer she moved to Switzerland.




Coco chanel designed costumes for shows such as Cocteau’s Antigone in 1923 and Oedipus Rex in 1937 and cinematic works such as La Regle de Jeu.

later on Coco Chanel  had a musical about her life on the Broadway in 1969 , and worked until her death in 1971 at the age of 88.