AUTOMOTIVATED:
STREAMLINED FASHION AND AUTOMOBILES
Open July 24, 2010 through January 23, 2011

CAR:             1937 Delage D8-120 by Letourneur et Marchand. The Margie and Robert E. Petersen Collection. Photo courtesy of the Petersen Automotive Museum. APPAREL:    Bergdorf Goodman, Evening Dress, 1938, rayon charmeuse with plastic buckle. Phoenix Art Museum Collection. Photo by Ken Howie. The sleek coachwork of the fashionably long Delage Aerosport was designed by Letourneur et Marchand of Paris and featured a rakishly dipped beltline and a fin on the trunk.  In the same way that automobile designers experimented with using new shapes to create more fluid and graceful lines on cars, fashion designers were thinking of how to achieve the same result with fabric.  Their objective was accomplished by cutting fabrics, such as that used for this Mille Oppenheim evening dress, on the bias so that they would better follow the contours of the body.

During the last 100 years more attention has been devoted to the designs of apparel and automobiles than to the designs of any other consumer goods.  Two of the most personally revealing categories of objects ever conceived, cars and clothing have been shaped by an almost universal obsession with speed and movement, the twin fascinations of the twentieth century.  Combined, they express not only one’s individual personality, but also their financial and social status and style-conscious individuals—especially in Southern California—have collectively embraced cars as fashion accessories that they ultimately came to regard as additional layers of clothing.  Cars are now as essential to one’s self-expression as hats, gowns, and jewels. 

Appearing late in the 19th century, the earliest series-produced automobiles were crude, dirty, noisy, unreliable, and difficult to start.  But what they lacked in sophistication they made up for by giving their pioneering owners the means to have exciting travel experiences and explore far flung destinations once unavailable to them.  Almost immediately the innate human desire to present oneself to others in as positive a way as possible led early motorists to festoon their cars with elaborate lighting equipment, special tops, fancy horns, fringed surrey tops, and other add-ons that many would regard as the automotive equivalent of jewelry.  And because most early cars were too underpowered to be fitted with heavy closed bodies, their occupants almost always sat in the open, completely exposed both to the elements and to onlookers. 

Difficult to imagine today, pioneering motorists were constantly required to fix flat tires or make repairs that forced them to get out of their cars, usually on muddy and dusty roads, then get under them to repair greasy mechanical components in order to keep going.  Despite the difficulties, they felt obliged to dress as attractively as possible, a challenging task when one’s apparel had to be rugged, weather resistant, warm, and durable, qualities that virtually guaranteed their outfits would be bulky and restrictive.  And like the appearance and mechanical layout of the earliest cars, there were at first no hard and fast rules about what motoring outfits to wear or how to wear them.  As a result, car and fashion designers took a “learn as you go” approach that yielded some of the most interesting and outlandish designs ever devised. 

When automobiles were a novelty during their earliest stages of development, drivers wore whatever they had available, usually the same attire they chose for rides in horse-drawn carriages.  But at the turn of the twentieth century, specialized dust coats and other motoring gear appeared.  Such garments protected the wearer from being spattered with mud and road grime while under way, and from oil and grease while making roadside repairs.  Some early dust coats were designed to be loose in the body to fit over regular clothes, double-breasted for extra protection over the chest, and with a snug fitting, standing collar with an extended flap across the throat for maximum protection.  Most motoring coats also had large pockets for maps, gloves, bandanas, and other travel necessities.  Before long, clothing manufacturers began producing increasingly refined and specialized versions of the motoring duster as the automobile developed more refined and elegant coachwork.  Some coats and dusters became so specialized that they were considered suitable only for short jaunts around town while others would have been appropriate only for long distance touring. 

As early as 1909, Vogue magazine editorials reported that the “experimental years of the motor car are over” and recognized that automobiles had become a part of everyday life.  By the early 1910s, many advertisements began to stress the importance of being “distinguished” when arriving at one’s destination and descending from the car.  The fact that the prevailing fashions through about 1915 were poorly suited for use by individuals traveling by motor car was not considered a good enough reason for members of polite society to abandon their strict, though unspoken, dress code.  This meant that women had no choice but to continue to wear bulky dresses and voluminous hairdos, which they then had to shield with equally bulky dusters, hats with scarves, and other protective gear such as goggles and gloves.  Men had it only slightly easier, which was fortunate because they were the ones that were expected to crank start the cars, change flat tires, or make on the spot mechanical repairs and adjustments. 

The widespread use of electric self-starters beginning with the 1912 Cadillac made hand cranking a car engine obsolete and contributed to the surge in women’s participation in motoring that coincided with the suffrage movement.  To further cement the connection between automobiles and women, many magazines of the day reported extensively on new clothing styles following important annual automobile shows and salons.  A woman’s judgment and influence on everything from paint and upholstery colors to ease of mechanical operation was recognized by manufacturers.  This resulted in new features and advertisements geared toward female motorists such as washable, light colored suits that became an essential part of the informal summer wardrobe and were suitable for bicycling, polo and other outdoor activities in addition to motoring.  When the weather turned cold, many individuals placed their vehicles in storage, but heartier motorists donned fur coats for their chilly, open air journeys.  Though its use is frowned upon today, fur was employed as a trimming for collars and cuffs or as a lining to a wool coat and furriers and larger clothing stores stocked coats made entirely of fur in the years prior to 1920.  Such outer wear would have been supplemented with fur caps, muffs, and gloves and accessories like the “snuggery,” a kind of heavy blanket that enveloped the lower half of the body with an apron of fur over the lap.  These accouterments were essential for motoring in cold climates.

CAR:             1934 LaSalle Model 350 Convertible Coupe. The Margie and Robert E. Petersen Collection. Photo courtesy of the Petersen Automotive Museum. APPAREL:    Hattie Carnegie, Dress, 1939. Phoenix Art Museum Collection. Photo by Ken Howie. One of the most art deco American cars built during the 1930s, the 1934 LaSalle was equipped with a tall, slender grille, round hood vents, and two-tier “biplane” bumpers for visual distinction.  Few outfits would have been more appropriate to wear while motoring in such a stylish vehicle than this whimsically printed silk dress by Hattie Carnegie, whose circular print and porthole motif mirrored the streamlined look of the era and perfectly complemented the styling themes of the car.

In a fortunate turn of events, especially for female motorists, simplification became the watchword of the 1920s.  Having emerged from their roles as ambulance and truck drivers during World War I, women had experienced a level of independence that was so appealing, they were compelled to forever abandon the impractical clothes of the past such as long, full skirts and bulky millinery.  With their bobbed hair, slender silhouettes, and exposed knees, flappers of the day embraced a new personal aesthetic along with the youthful exuberance that it came to represent.  In one of the defining portraits of the Art Deco period, Tamara de Lempicka painted her 1925 self portrait in an open Bugatti.  The image embodied the distinctive spirit of the mid-1920s: a beautiful woman, free and in control of her own destiny and with a love of machinery—namely a fast, stylish car.  Geometric shapes consistent with the birth of the automotive age became popular and helped contribute to the new independent attitude.  The popularity of active sports and the prominence of physical fitness also played an important role in the new style, as did the introduction of reliable, low priced closed cars (beginning with the 1922 Essex two-door sedan) that enabled motorists to wear less elaborate outfits that were suited for the destination rather than the journey. 

Amid the decadence of the roaring twenties, formal attire was still required for evening occasions, but its stiffness was challenged by the younger set.  Coco Chanel, more than any other designer, was sensitive to the spirit of the era.  Her place in the design world was confirmed when she was included in the Exposition des Arts Decoratifs of 1925, the landmark exhibition of modern decorative arts that defined—and lent its name to—the Art Deco style.  Her greatest success was the simple little black dress was ultimately dubbed Chanel’s “Ford Model T,” which was acclaimed as “the frock that all the world would wear.”  As the decade closed and the tone of carefree exuberance subsided, the fashion for formality and shirts with stiff fronts and collars returned.  The style evolved throughout the decade until the Great Depression began at which time streamlining began to capture the public’s imagination. 

In science, streamlining is the use of shapes that reduce air resistance and increase efficiency in moving forms.  Streamlined design is characterized by rounded, tapered, contours with a horizontal emphasis often marked with three parallel “speed” or “flow” lines.  The teardrop is considered the ideal aerodynamic form.  Noted industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague once remarked that “the extended parabola of streamlining occurs constantly throughout our bodies—a muscular male body or a beautifully formed female body.”  That such a strong and instinctively appealing visual element would eventually be extended to a man-made creation such the automobile was almost inevitable.  In the time of severe financial hardship, streamlined design projected a modernistic view of future progress.  Its smooth, clean forms evoked machine-age speed and efficiency and was applied to all areas of design, including items as ordinary as toasters and radios. 

In the same way automobile designers experimented with more fluid and graceful lines in cars, fashion designers were thinking of the same issues in fabric.  The slim, molded gowns that were the idealized streamlined fashions of the thirties were all cut on the bias to follow the contour of the body.  Garment pieces cut on the bias (a 45-degree angle across the grain of the fabric) drape more fluidly, appear softer, and have more stretch than those cut on the lengthwise or cross-grain of the fabric.  The French couturier Madeline Vionnet originated this cut in 1930.  While this cross cut had been used in portions of clothing before, it had never been a feature.  Her idea was one of the great advancements of twentieth century fashion design.  These bias gowns would have been worn over foundation garments to achieve the smooth, streamlined silhouette.  The elongated fashionable line was based on the natural feminine form idealized by the foundation garments worn with them to become perfectly smooth and slenderized.  In this era, streamlining also became subtly linked with eugenics, the pseuedoscientific belief that the best human traits could and should be cultivated through selective reproduction.  External appearances were believed to indicate internal order.  A beautiful, fit, and healthy body became the ultimate ideal and such clinging gowns highlighted these attributes.  The popularity of fitness, sports and the craze for tanning also contributed to the way such gowns suited their time.

Magazine copy writers and advertisers used streamlining as a marketing tool to promote a new look in everything from underwear to shoes in order to stimulate sales.  Streamlined silhouettes in fashion (achieved through the physics of bras and girdles underneath form-fitting clothing) evolved with the new, aerodynamically designed automobiles of the 1930s.  Streamlining inspired the use of plain, unornamented fabrics constructed in intersecting compound curves usually cut on the bias of the fabric to create an elongated silhouette.  Keeping with the new aesthetic, designers such as Augustabernard created “grand simple affairs” that minimized the use of fancy trimmings.  Instead, she generated visual interest with the sculpting of the material itself with spiraling flounces, tiers or tucks and a liberal use of the bias cut.  Many bespoke automobiles of the day also “wore” coachwork with lowered beltlines and carefully sculpted contours with a minimum of fussy ornamentation.  Bright touches of contrasting color became a design tool of the 1930s that both couturiers and automobile coachbuilders used to create a spirited and dynamic look.

CAR:            1938 Delahaye Type 135M Competition Roadster by Figoni et Falaschi. The Margie and Robert E. Petersen Collection. Photo courtesy of the Petersen Automotive Museum. APPAREL:   Paquin, Day Coat, 1932. Phoenix Art Museum Collection. Photo by Ken Howie. Built by Figoni et Falaschi, the voluptuous body of this car featured completely enclosed wheels, headlights integrated into the fenders and a windshield that could be folded flat for a true open air motoring experience.  As it did with automobiles like the Delahaye, the use of strong, yet harmonious and vivid colors emphasized line and form in fashion design during the era and both cars and fashions were often described in feminine terms of shape, form and effect.

For the ultimate effect, wealthy connoisseurs would collaborate with French couturiers, automakers, and coachbuilders to create perfectly matching ensembles.  Even Chanel met with exclusive coachbuilders like Joseph Figoni to formulate matching automobile and fashion ensembles for a select few clients.  Well heeled patrons often had long lunches in exclusive hotel restaurants with their coachbuilders and couturiers to order coordinating fashion and automobile ensembles to be debuted at prestigious parties or high profile events such as a concours d’elegance.  At most of these organized events, entries were judged according to how well the automobiles went with the wearer’s fashion ensembles.  Vivid colors used in strong contrast and in harmony emphasized line and form in both fashion and automobile design.  That the two were interlinked was made evident in magazine advertisements and editorials where both the cars and fashions were described in feminine terms of shape, form and effect. 

As men’s fashions began to move away from the wide trousers and boxy-cut jackets of the 1920s, they also took on a more streamlined fit in the 1930s.  The ideal masculine silhouette featured wide shoulders, a straight back, narrow hips and a flat stomach.  Young men sought to maintain an elegant, well put together look in an era when money was tight.  Resort casual clothes like the Palm Beach suit (named after a vacation hot spot of the 1930s) became status symbols worn by wealthy men who could afford to travel and have specific outfits for warm climate holidays.  Motion pictures and movie magazines glamorized the image by featuring stars relaxing in summer resorts wearing appropriate holiday apparel.  The attitude was relaxation, but the clothing requirements were still formal and expected to be of good cut and quality.  Men packed as much clothing and gear as women did, traveling with trunks full of dinner jackets, sports gear and leisurewear.    

By the mid-1930s, dresses began to develop flare and volume below the hipline and whimsical printed fabrics and fanciful hats dominated fashion’s last hurrah before World War II.  Even during the difficult days leading up to the war, people sought to maintain the elegance in their clothes, automobiles and lives for as long as they possibly could.  Floral patterned prints executed with painterly effects as if they were strewn across the ground were a popular motif in the thirties.  Flowers were characteristically medium sized, fairly naturalistic and sketchily applied on a light or dark background for high contrast.  Such floral prints enabled economical use of fabric by making “unofficial” seams unnoticeable and were a more economical way of creating a decorative effect than embroidery or other labor intensive techniques.  A floral pattern could also provide a measure of camouflage for a less than streamlined figure. 

As the 1930s drew to a close, historical subjects began to provide a romantic escape from the realities of the day.  Historical references popularized through Hollywood movies, revivals of plays like Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and new productions that evoked the sentiments of former times like Noel Coward’s Cavalcade started historical trends in fashion such as billowing upper sleeves and a hint of bustle at the back.  As the 1940s approached and hardships and political tensions compounded, historical and futuristic influences reached a peak in popularity.  By 1940, the lingering effects of the depression forced many talented fashion designers and coachbuilders to close their doors as their clientele vanished.  And although arriving at the valet in a distinguished automobile wearing an equally elegant ensemble still created a spellbinding effect, the looming war in Europe brought about a new conservatism that discouraged such displays.  But when the war was over, fashion designers and their clients embraced the new age of optimism and a new look was soon on the way.

The Petersen Automotive Museum exhibition Automotivated: Streamlined Fashion and Automobiles is produced in partnership with Phoenix Art Museum and was inspired by the 2007 Phoenix Art Museum fashion exhibition Automotivated.  The author wishes to thank Dennita Sewell, Curator of Fashion Design at Phoenix Art Museum for her invaluable research input and assistance with coordinating the loan of the irreplaceable apparel that forms an essential part of the exhibition.