Boue souers

About the original Author: Ellen Ada Goldberg is a teacher and artist based in New York City. Ellen graduated from the Museum Studies Program at The Fashion Institute of Technology under the direction of Denyse Montegut and Maria Ann Conelli and the advisement of Lourdes Font. She wishes to thank them and the Gladys Marcus, Metropolitan Museum, and New York Public Libraries among many others. This article is excerpted from Ellen's Masters Thesis for the program that is housed, under copyright, in the FIT Gladys Marcus Library. All of the Figures may be viewed there by appointment with the Gladys Marcus Library. Ellen had the chance to live in Paris for a year and will always value the way that it attuned her to feminine style and identity. Vive la différence! You may contact her through www.twitter.com/bluesbrite.
Boué Soeurs: French Fashion in New York
Born in the South of France and educated in Paris, the sisters Sylvie and Jeanne Boué founded the first French haute couture house in New York on 13 West 56th Street. The house of Boué Soeurs, established by the sisters in 1899, was originally based in Paris at 9 rue de la Paix but when World War I intensified the sisters decided to move their business to more peaceful shores. They had their heyday in the 1920s, when their styles were widely popularized in trade and fashion magazines. The firm was most known for creating dresses for court occasions, balls and other formal events. Many of these dresses were decorated with their renowned ribbon work (Fig. 1). At one point in their highly successful career, Boué Soeurs also had salons in London and Bucharest with collections that were presented at the Czar’s court of St. Petersburg and the Palace of the Khediva in Cairo. Their clientele included highly select French nobility, international Parisian society, and the leading actresses and courtesans of La Belle Époque.
Born three and a half years apart, the Boué sisters were naturally close and remained so throughout their lives. Sylvie was the creative one, who traveled the world lecturing, giving fashion shows, and promoting their products and designs while Jeanne took care of home base, first in Paris then in New York overseeing the collections and clientele. Sylvie married the opera singer Philippe Montégut, who became their financial manager and “quietly and wisely, managed some difficult financial situations, trying to bridle down the sometimes extravagant whims of his daring wife.” Sylvie had a son named Philippe, and Jeanne a daughter named Mounette who were raised like brother and sister. In a 1913 photograph (Fig. 2), taken while Boué Soeurs was still a Paris house, Sylvie, Philippe and Mounette are gathered around an English style bench. Philippe, who wrote an eloquent essay and the first document about the Boué sisters that is one of the main sources for their family and business history, is standing to his mother’s right. Sylvie’s slightly pointed nose, expressive upper lip, and pronounced jawbone are mirrored in her son’s and niece’s. Sylvie is the picture of pride, slightly closer to the son while letting the niece stand independent to the side. She is dressed exquisitely while Mounette is the picture of romanticism in her loose and curling hair and off the shoulder maiden’s dress. The flowing scene of clouds in the background could be taken directly from a Gainsborough.

Another photograph (Fig. 3), taken circa 1912, illustrates the influence of the eighteenth century on an image which may have been taken by an in-house photographer but was certainly styled by the Boué sisters. The image is of a model, perhaps one of the sisters, seated in an eighteenth-century neoclassical chair with her head rested lightly on her right hand and framed within an oval backdrop of Gainsborough trees that is reminiscent of their firm’s advertisement (Fig. 4). The model faces the viewer directly with a critical yet slightly amused look in a floor length gown with pierced rose trim, through which an underlayer of gauzy white fabric appears. Even this early work exemplifies the layering of delicate fabrics and the lavishly detailed ornamentation of the firm. The strategic placement of the pierced layer of roses lays the groundwork for their signature roses. The darkness of the petals that opens the skirt at the hip is sensual and feminine. A long white rose edged train adds gravity to the ensemble while the same white rose edging pulls it together. Finally the light oval buckle on the single shoe pointing out from under the dress and nicely juxtaposed to the large oval backdrop provides a finishing touch and emphasizes the importance of the whole ensemble to the Boué sisters. This ensemble work becomes further refined throughout their career, reaching its peak in the 1920s with the ribbonwork, showing variation of color and material in the smallest rose. Philippe Montégut writes that when his mother, Sylvie Boué, was a child she “vowed that she would make the most beautiful dresses in the world.”
Putting words into action when only in her teens, Sylvie entered into the service of a dressmaking house run by two elderly women on rue du Helder and Jeanne joined her soon after. After the two transformed the establishment for the better the owners decided to let them inherit it. Spurred on by the success of this first company they purchased a firm that was going out of business “debts and all” and established themselves as neighbors and equals to Cartier and Worth for the next thirty years. By 1899 The Boué sisters went on to open a salon in Paris at 9 rue de la Paix in the second arrondissement, a very busy area of Paris, home to the Opéra Garnier and the Louvre. Contemporaries with whom they shared design characteristics, were Paul Poiret, Callot Soeurs, Mme Paquin, and Jeanne Lanvin, to name a few.
In an interview, entitled “Une Audience Chez Mesdames Callot Soeurs” by Maurice de Waleffe, published in Les Modes N°198 in 1920, one of the Callot Sisters speaks about the state of the fashion industry and her firm’s latest collection:
-And now for the styles this winter, will the skirt remain short? -Yes definitely. It’s young. The long skirt was dirty and semi-long skirt disgraceful.
-The back still low?
-Yes.
-Alas, nothing new?
While the hungry press spread the word about the collection of the Callot Soeurs salon and others like them, foreign clients, actresses and society women helped launch collections as well as inspire them:
Foreigners, grand French dames and actresses are precious, indispensable for launching our styles, and also for inspiring them.
For example, we create a dress while thinking of our clients whose silhouette catches our fancy… But if one day we work only for
the French clientele, we will have to close the boutique. This is what the government pretends not to understand. During the war
all of the big houses were at a loss at how to occupy their personnel. Fashion did not begin to become profitable again until one
year ago, with exportation. But the minister of commerce refuses to give us the tax exemption that he gives to the jewelry industry.
A rich American buys a ring for five thousand francs from a jeweler on the rue de la Paix. She is taxed five hundred francs but la
douane reimburses her after she leaves France. Does she buy a robe for the same price? Not a chance!”
A prime example of a turn of the century Parisian salon, a photograph from Les Modes N°198 circa 1920 depicting the salon de vente of Callot Soeurs reveals what the Boué Soeurs salon may have been like. As their clientele included both royalty and society women it follows that their salon would provide a suitably luxurious setting. Reminiscent of an eighteenth century French château, the Callot Soeurs salon is decorated with large paintings of oriental and pastoral scenes reminiscent of the French eighteenth-century masters, a crystal chandelier, flat marbleized columns and tasseled curtains. The floor, with its large, stylized geometric forms harks back to the Napoleonic era. An extremely stylish and somewhat matronly client is seated upon a neoclassical style chaise longue while a woman stands beside her with her arm rested proprietarily on the back of the chair behind the client. Two other women gaze on from the back of the room as a model shows off one of Callot Soeurs creations. The stance of the model is directly facing the client with her arms placed assertively upon her hips. Her eyes do not look directly at those of the potential buyer’s but gaze off at an undefined point above. In a photograph in the same issue of Les Modes, also of the Callot Soeurs atelier we see those who made the clothing - “Les Midinettes” - young women in their twenties and thirties, all with a certain stylish flair. Every woman wears her hair upswept- some in more elaborate hairdos than others. They sit at long rectangular tables made out of planks laid on top of gurneys. Each table is covered in white paper that is attached delicately at either end. Indicating that more than one woman may have worked on a single garment at the same time, clothing in the process of being assembled sits in front of some of the women grouped in twos and threes. Revealing the pressured nature of the business that could not stop to pose for the brief photograph, the overseer- a stern woman in black warns the photographer not to linger too long with a cold look in her eyes and rigid posture.
Another reason for the unwelcome stare is the secretive nature of haute couture and the fact that the women who would read the article were probably waiting impatiently for their new outfits and lesser designers looking to make a knock-off. The room itself is stark--the walls are bare and makeshift lamps hang frozen in orbit. Approximately twenty-six women work in the room giving one an idea of the relatively high demand for the latest fashions, which they would adapt according to their means. The absence of sewing machines and the level of hand stitching on existing Boué Soeurs clothing as well as other haute couture at the time indicate the high level of handwork involved. When World War I started, the Boué sisters decided to move their business to America. They opened the first French fashion house in New York after the success of their fashion show at the Hotel Plaza. John Redfern and Lucile (Lady Duff Gordon), neither of them French, were the only designers with Paris and London-based couture houses in New York before Boué Soeurs.
World War I was not the only reason for their move to New York. The fashion industry had been suffering as a result of heavy taxes brought on by previous conflicts such as the Franco-Prussian War (July 1870-May 1871). In the interview by de Waleffe, one of the Callot sisters further explains the fashion industry’s battle against exorbitant taxes. In this passage: one of the Callot sisters sheds insight into why the Boué sisters opened up their salon in New York and what the process was like. “If an evening dress cost two thousand francs before the war, it costs six or seven thousand today. It is impossible to get around it: if the government strangles us, it leaves us only one option: to go to work in New York. And what would happen to all our nice little workwomen?” This statement reveals the bond between the designers and their seamstresses and how they were a main consideration for the location of a salon.
By keeping their Paris salon as a base through which they manufactured the clothing for the New York branch and for their Parisian clients, the Boué sisters circumvented the problem of breaking loyalty with the women who worked for them. With this strategy and no little bravery the Boué sisters endured opening their New York branch during wartime. And, as Philippe Montégut points out, there was much to be endured. The ship the Boué sisters traveled to America on was destroyed soon after during fighting in the mid-Atlantic and over the course of the war, they shared waters with submarines in traveling from Paris to New York and back across the Atlantic.
During their time in New York, particularly during the twenties, the Boué sisters were at their most creative. Their styles were widely popularized in trade and fashion magazines and copied by major department stores across the country. From a sketch of a knock-off found in the Berkley files in the Special Collections of the Fashion Institute of Technology, we see at close hand how the major department stores of this period would create their copies for mass production. A mysterious note jotted hurriedly on the side gives a hint of the practices of creating knock-offs: “change this a little because we used it.” These pencil drawings of which there are thousands, were often quickly drawn in restrooms at fashion shows to be brought back to the office and used as the basis for a couture design. The sketch of the gown from the salon of Boué Soeurs is particularly beautiful, due to the complexity the dress. The artist did not appear to have time to draw the full body because he/she was too preoccupied with getting the drape to fall correctly and include all the detail work. A preliminary drawing for the sketch in the upper left corner roughly maps out the proportions of the dress next to the faintly written and abbreviated name “Boué.”
Catching the pioneer spirit of America and targeting a niche previously unexplored by the French, the Boué sisters introduced French lingerie to a wider audience in the United States by distributing their models to chains such as Neiman Marcus and I. Magnin. The only option before Boué Soeurs lingerie was to go to Paris and purchase more alluring and luxurious undergarments or wear the plain underwear of the nineteenth century. Aptly encompassing the imagination and artistry of the Boué Soeurs salon, “Quand les Fleurs Rêvent,” (Fig.7) the name of the perfume they manufactured near their château outside of Paris alludes to a dream world where beauty reigns free: the essence of Boué Soeurs style. After 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, Boué Soeurs advertisements disappear from the press, which ceases to cover them. Fashion historians like Caroline R. Milbank have been tempted to assume that the house ceased to exist, and that the sisters may have retired to France. In fact, Sylvie remained in New York throughout WWII and then, when the German occupation of Paris ended she reopened the Paris branch for another eight years with the same staff, who had remarkably survived. It was only until 1953, when Sylvie died, that the large gold letters of the Paris salon proclaiming the words Boué Soeurs were taken down, in spite of a valiant effort by Jeanne’s daughter Mounette.
A study of the first French haute couture house in New York is significant because none has ever been executed. The house of Boué Soeurs is a part of the history of both French and American fashion that needs to be told. The Fashion Institute of Technology, The Brooklyn Museum, and The Costume Institute among other collections provided access for study of their holdings of Boué Soeurs garments for this thesis while graciously allowing them to be photographed. Garments not available for study in other collections were researched in exhibition catalogs and other publications. Periodicals that covered the house of Boué Soeurs, from 1915 to 1933 in the New York Public Library - all pertinent branches, Fashion Institute of Technology Special Collections and Library, and the Costume Institute Special Collections further illuminated the firm and family of the Boué sisters and their important place in fashion history.
Glowing creations of silk satin, tulle and lace, the work of Boué Soeurs was ultra-feminine, comfortable and of such a quality. Like their signature rose, the Boué woman was the most important creation of all because she was natural and imperfections only enhanced her beauty. The fashions of Boué Soeurs from their 1920’s heyday reflect the new freedom of body and spirit that came when women were released from the bondage of the corset and represented a dramatic difference from the corseted styles. Allowing one both an uncorseted body and the freedom to use one’s legs, the designs of the Boué sisters were particularly liberating. By spreading the luxury of the eighteenth century over a range of modern dress styles, Boué Soeurs imparted not only a feeling of femininity but of power. Boué Soeurs created dresses for goddesses in a rough city with silk and beads that gleam.

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