la Maison Zimmermann (Paris)
an Illustrated Promotional Leaflet (partial)
circa 1914
Folded and overlaid rather like an accordion (albeit a tuneless one), the pages of this leaflet feature six charming illustrations by Gets (?), each charismatic and uniquely militant on the bare stretch of page it stands. The selected pair (as seen to the left) adorn the leaflet’s cover and back faces, with the remaining illustrations within combined to create a one-registered conversational storyboard - or, in fact, an open letter - between a certain ‘Madame de Villepré’ and her nameless granddaughter. Their ‘conversation’ so-to-speak (cleverly acting as the invitation to the house’s opening event), is not a particularly long one, though it coincidentally serves as the footstool on which the fashionable hoop-hemmed, whimsically frilly works by la Maison Zimmermann are artistically showcased. By example, a polka-dot-clad lady unwisely (though apparently) harpooning a wonky parasol illustrates the caption (translated), The look of, ‘Come hither, young man’, while simultaneously sporting a ghastly great pair of ankle-grazing knicker bottoms. Even by last century’s standards of seduction, surely an à la mode garment such as this acted to repulse rather than lure in the opposite sex (especially in light of the lady’s curious behavioural ‘love call’), but nevertheless, the illustration’s candour (and that of its brethren) remains obstinate: it embodies the house’s lucid style of eloquence, its cheeky play with humour and its appreciation and support of the work of an artist who knew how best to balance petit, quaint drawings with the often mis-used vernacular of negative space. This leaflet speaks warmly and poetically on behalf of la Maison Zimmermann, though certainly not by way of words.
