"Movement and Pep": Re-animating the Duchess of Windsor's Lifestyle Fashions

McNeil, PK

"Movement and Pep": Re-animating the Duchess of Windsor's Lifestyle Fashions

McNeil, PK

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Publisher:: Gebruder Mann Verlag
Publication Type:: Chapter
Citation:: Mode und Bewegung. Beiträge zur theorie und geschichte der kleidung, 2013, 1, pp. 57 - 68
Issue Date:: 2013-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	McNeil, PK https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2151-4196	en_US
dc.contributor.editor	Schlittler, AB	en_US
dc.contributor.editor	Tietze, K	en_US
dc.date.issued	2013-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Mode und Bewegung. Beiträge zur theorie und geschichte der kleidung, 2013, 1, pp. 57 - 68	en_US
dc.identifier.isbn	978-3-942810-06-7	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/26858
dc.description.abstract	Between the wars the Duchess of Windsor (1896-1986) was a quintessential female sartorial modernist. It was an image built on a type of obsessive discipline and iteration of gestures and actions in `appearing' and also in managing a household - `she was always in control', noted her friend Carol Petrie. Photographic and drawn representations of her by Man Ray, Cecil Beaton and Horst played a role in disseminating new silhouettes and profiles for modern women. Yet these images are frozen, and they drain the kinesic element of wearing garments for which she was notable. The Duchess of Windsor brought her clothes, which now hang as empty relics, into a range of animated performances, which can be reconstructed through film, photography and memoirs. The jewellery collection, the sale of which reinvigorated her fame after her death, constituted a type of endless writing over the body, being inscribed with private messages in the prince's hand-writing by the jeweler-engravers. Their technical and aesthetic innovation lay in their ability to move, to be flexible and pliable, to mould to her clothes and her body. Her initials and quasi-royal cipher were embroidered onto both inner and outer clothing, and incorporated into the structure of her dwelling spaces. This paper will relate the modernity of the Duchess' sartorial movement to more archaic and emblematic poses. Perhaps her appearance was so compelling because it linked her contemporary life to early-modern traditions of personal jokes and personal allegiances reiterated through the wearing of clothes, craft practices and gift exchange.	en_US
dc.publisher	Gebruder Mann Verlag	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Mode und Bewegung. Beiträge zur theorie und geschichte der kleidung	en_US
dc.title	"Movement and Pep": Re-animating the Duchess of Windsor's Lifestyle Fashions	en_US
dc.type	Chapter
utslib.location	Emsdetten, Berlin	en_US
utslib.for	120301 Design History and Theory	en_US
utslib.citation.edition	1	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building/School of Design
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - CCDP - Contemporary Design Practice
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.edition	1	en_US
pubs.place-of-publication	Emsdetten, Berlin	en_US

Abstract:

Between the wars the Duchess of Windsor (1896-1986) was a quintessential female sartorial modernist. It was an image built on a type of obsessive discipline and iteration of gestures and actions in `appearing' and also in managing a household - `she was always in control', noted her friend Carol Petrie. Photographic and drawn representations of her by Man Ray, Cecil Beaton and Horst played a role in disseminating new silhouettes and profiles for modern women. Yet these images are frozen, and they drain the kinesic element of wearing garments for which she was notable. The Duchess of Windsor brought her clothes, which now hang as empty relics, into a range of animated performances, which can be reconstructed through film, photography and memoirs. The jewellery collection, the sale of which reinvigorated her fame after her death, constituted a type of endless writing over the body, being inscribed with private messages in the prince's hand-writing by the jeweler-engravers. Their technical and aesthetic innovation lay in their ability to move, to be flexible and pliable, to mould to her clothes and her body. Her initials and quasi-royal cipher were embroidered onto both inner and outer clothing, and incorporated into the structure of her dwelling spaces. This paper will relate the modernity of the Duchess' sartorial movement to more archaic and emblematic poses. Perhaps her appearance was so compelling because it linked her contemporary life to early-modern traditions of personal jokes and personal allegiances reiterated through the wearing of clothes, craft practices and gift exchange.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/26858