"Paris Plays With The Eternal Feminine" (Woman's Journal, November 1938)

 Now for another look at high fashion in the final months leading up to World War II.

Creed

A year of browns, but all sorts of warm, alive browns, and a year of long coats, and all sorts of outlines in coats.  These three from that great tailor Creed show one fitted, and two straight and concealing.  There is a Magyar cut in the tweed coat on the left with a silk cord fastening twisted round the golden seal collar.  The centre model, in a brown that Paris calls brick, is one of those neat tailored sports coats of which no one tires.  The third model shows the new trim waist and the favourite seal fur on blue and beige tweed.

"Creed"was a French firm founded by an English tailor in the 19th century.  In 1938 most of the fashions produced by Creed were designed by the founder's son Henry and his grandson Charles.  Looking to the future, Charles Creed relocated to London after the fall of France, where he became the the first elected member of the Incorporated Society of London Fashion Designers.

Patou

There is no French house which shows evening clothes with such a debonair and charming  worldliness as Jean Patou.  He designs slim hips and supple hems, and then adds enough decoration to give the savour of importance.  The lovely grape coloured satin dress is beautifully appliquéd with fruit and vine leaves, while the silver lamé dress has embroidered flowers and a green velvet sash.  Very soignée is the gold lamé dinner ensemble with mink bow and cuffs on the long-sleeved jacket that looks so cleverly a part of the dress.

Jean Patou, founder of the house, died in 1936.  However, he left Patou in good hands.  Raymond Barbas, while not a couturier himself, had an eye for a talented designer.  Among the people he employed in the 1930s was Christian Dior, who sold him sketches.  Unfortunately I have no idea who designed the models appearing in this issue of Woman's Journal.  To confuse things, the magazine appears to attribute them to the late Jean Patou!

Maggy Rouff

Rich fabrics draped and gathered, rainbow colours splashed together with a glorious abandon, and the result, evening clothes of fine presence and haunting charm.  What fairer sight than this period frock in four tones of moiré ribbon?  It is though light through a glass prism had been held suspended.  Back to bustles?  It looks rather like it in the interesting white satin frock of pencil outline.  The third model drapes itself into slim lines of grace with velvet in the favourite violet colour of the moment.

Maggy Rouff was another designer born in the business, as her parents were the proprietors of Drécoll in Paris.  Maggy (born Marguerite de Wagner) got her first experience designing for Drécoll, but moved on to found her own firm under the name of "Maggy Rouff" in 1928.  Maggy Rouff specialised in sportswear, but as you can see from the picture above, was equally talented designing evening wear.  The firm opened a branch in London in 1937, but given that Maggy Rouff remained in France during the German occupation it probably closed for the duration of the war.