Vera Borea was one of the first houses to offer luxury sportswear for women.[1] The house produced high-end garments for ski, tennis, golf, beach, boating, motoring, biking and hunting, alongside day and evening dresses, accessories, shoes and jewellery.[2]
Known for expertly tailored sports and travel suits[3] and dresses,[4] Vera Borea came to fame with its innovative designs that promoted a new lifestyle, and acceptance of fashion sportswear as appropriate wear for other social occasions.[5]
History
Sports models for city wear: a couture house dedicated to sportswear
Vera Borea boutique, Rue Saint-Honore, in 1949Evening Dresse 1939. Photo by Erwin Blumenfeld .
Countess de Regoli, a passionate sportswoman[6] born and raised in Italian Dolomites, was frustrated by a lack of clothing that was chic yet comfortable and began to design sportswear, négligées and swimming suits featuring special knitting stitch invented by her grandmother[7]
With assistance of her friend, the British-born Princess de Rohan, the countess located her haute-couture salon at 29 rue d'Artois, at the very end of Faubourg Saint-Honoré. With growing success, the house established in 1935 a two-story shop at 376 rue Saint Honoré, which remained open until 2007.
With a no-nonsense, hands-on approach, de Regoli, an avid skier, swimmer and golfer, tried out her creations on herself before she offered them for sale, and often modelled them for clients.[8] The designs appeared smart enough to be worn in town, reuniting sports and town wardrobes.[9]
Ski suit, 1933
Jumpsuit, 1934
Tennis dress, 1934
Swimming suit, 1934
International success
Vera Borea soon became the favorite destination on both sides of the Atlantic for women going for the new relaxed lifestyle.[10]
American department stores snapped her designs[11] and the house became the reference for garments that were simple in line but unusual in materials and cut, modern and practical. Vera Borea's creations often featured details that, beyond looking good, served a practical purpose and could be wore on multiple occasions such as after tennis, for motoring or on a ship.
Prestigious fashion magazines featured Vera Borea's creations alongside Hermès, Lanvin, Chanel and Patou.[12] Her designs were copied with those of Vionnet, Schiaparelli,[13] Lanvin and Patou.[14]
Scores of Americans soon joined the regular French clients at Borea's Paris salon,[15] including famous sportswomen such as Helen Wills and Suzanne Lenglen[16] and Hollywood movie stars such as Joan Bennett.[17]
Until the retirement of de Regoli in 1962, Vera Borea was considered one of the grand Parisian couturiers of its days and was a member of Parisian Haute-Couture.[18]
Beach pyjama, 1933
Tennis dresses, 1933
Ski suit, 1937
Ski suit for Arosa, 1939
A novel approach to elegance: relaxed simplicity, chic in details, gender fluidity
Vera Borea brought a sporty aesthetic and integrated the codes of athletic wear. The house started off designing daywear and soon became known for garments that were elegant yet dynamic, stylish yet practical. Her creations often had unusual details that served a practical purpose. Even her evening wear, which she introduced a few seasons later, avoided superfluous details and instead focused on a superb cut, a comfortable fit and excellent workmanship.[19]
In general, the designer favored simple but noble materials like wool, linen, hemp and cotton, often with a textured or nubby surface.[20] Even when she used silk, it was usually in heavy woven patterns, which Borea had made in Italy.[21]
She borrowed liberally from menswear and regularly used wool flannel, tweeds and pinstripes for her women's suits and separates.[22] Even ski ensembles were made of wool flannel and were often shown with an ascot or a tie. Another example of mixing men's and women's codes could be seen in an extraordinary black velvet ski suit that Borea designed in 1933, which looked like a tuxedo and closed with metallic clips that echoed those of a ski boot. The designer re-visited the theme often, like with evening wear she designed in 1945 that sported a tuxedo top and a full skirt like a ballerina's tutu, decades before "le Smoking" burst onto the fashion scene.[23]
Tuxedo jumpsuit, 1945
Day dress, 1945
Technical innovation
A constant desire to explore and innovate permeated Borea's work. She worked out how to weather-proof corduroy and used it for a raincoat. Another raincoat was made of rubber. She spun hemp with silk for travel suits[24] and introduced in France the two-way-stretch elastic fabrics.[25] An evening coat was made of transparent fabric. An aviator jacket was made of supple leather and a knitted back panel, making it wearable both indoors and outdoors. Shoes sported heels made of rubber. Buttons were made of Brazil nuts. Other elements like fur, raffia, rope, bone, nut, feathers, pine cones and leather also showed up in her designs.[26]
Ski suit in white Khasa, 1934
Ski jumpsuit, 1949
Wind jacket for ski, in Cracknyl fabric, 1949
Vera Borea designs and aesthetics
Modern cuts for a modern lifestyle
White beach dress, July 1934
Borea's garments were ingenious on both an aesthetic and a practical level. For example, the designer introduced high-waisted pants that skimmed the body from just below the bust down to the waist, with no belt necessary. She lowered the waistline down to the hips for a slimming line. She showed the pants with a bolero, bomber jackets, cropped sweaters or full blouses, which enhanced the elongated effect.
Wrap blouses and dresses did away with a need for zippers, buttons and belts. Halter tops did away with collars. Flared and gored skirts provided fullness and ease of movement while avoiding the stiffness and puffiness of a gathered waistline. Judicious draping on dresses and jackets, inverted pleats on pants, set-in panels; all continued this body-conscious philosophy. Waistbands and cuffs became ribbed and elasticized, offering more comfort and a sleeker line, as well as protection against the elements.[27] Scarves were built into blouses or jackets, or looped through a belt. Short sleeved jackets provided both polish and practicality. Pockets freed up a woman's hands, as did chains and clips, which held a clip-on cigarette case, a visor or a pair of gloves. Collars disappeared from coats and jackets or were shrunk down to a simple stand-up style. Kimono cut coats closed with sashes or one or two oversized buttons. A slim ribbed turtleneck pullover became one with the body and removed the need for a scarf to keep the wearer's throat warm. Thin ribbed pullovers were layered, making them ideal for cool temperatures or outdoor sports, but also easy to peel off once inside for maximum comfort.[28]
Borea also made a mark with her swimsuits, which were often made from plain wool or cotton knits and little ornament. The flair was in the details: low backs, criss-crossing straps, flared hips, discreet patterns. In 1934, she showed swimsuits worn under a matching skirt or flared shorts, giving women a new alternative to the fuller covering of an apron dress. With either option, a woman could simply slip on the skirt, shorts or dress over her swimsuit and go straight to lunch or jump into her car. An apron style sundress with a low back allowed women to soak up the sun's rays on the terrace of a restaurant. Pants got a cargo pocket and jackets incorporated pockets or deeply cuffed sleeves that could hold a swim cap or a wet bathing suit. The beach wear range grew to include sleeveless dresses with matching cotton coats and capri pants, oversized terry cloth lined jackets, high-waisted shorts and bra tops; with matching sandals, socks and beach bags.[29]
1932
Passionate about skiing, swimming and golf, Borea particularly enjoyed designing sportswear because she found it so difficult to buy clothing that was chic yet comfortable and well-priced. Her 1932 sports clothes designs included a skirt and waist-length jacket made of thick woolly tricot. These were worn in combination with an "open work" inside sweater of the same color. A tweed top coat with a black belt and a loose wrap around front gave a harmonious silhouette.[30] Paris fashion releases in the late spring were replete with frocks made of heavy black wool. Borea's black wool crepon frock had an incrusted collar and top sleeves of white shaved lamb.[31] Her summer 1932 fashions emphasized a high-waist effect, even when no belt was worn. The wearer's figure was closely fit from just below her bust to the waist. Borea's day skirts had hemlines from eight to ten inches from the ground. She favored materials which were quite rough and open-surfaced, primarily cotton or woolen ones. These were tailored into small modern suits which were worn with blouses made of dimity or crocheted Irish linen thread. These featured turn down collars and muslin ties. For town wear, Borea stressed rough linen fabrics and she often employed negligee materials in formal fashions. She rarely used silks, but sometimes created heavy basket or chevron (insignia) patterns, which she obtained hand woven from Italy. The youthful designs were without pretense and definitely were not flapperish.[32]
Beach accessories in interwoven rafia and leather, 1935
1933
Summer designs revealed in February 1933 marked a milestone in Borea's designing career. From this point, she no longer showed pants, with the exception of plus fours, which she styled for boating. Her very feminine sports frocks and evening gowns were quite similar, except for their lengths. The frocks were shorter, sixteen inches off the floor, while the evening gowns were ankle-length. Both possessed accentuated sunburn decolletes, suspended from very small ribbon-threaded metal chains. Borea lowered the waistlines of her creations to the hipbone. Her fashions began to exaggerate fullness in overblouses and the wide, flared, gored skirts she designed. Borea's bathing suits were short and flaring, made from plain wool or checked cotton. She created taffeta blouses with linen suits.[33] For spring and summer, Borea used knitted shoulder yokes. A white suede golf jacket she designed had a knitted white cotton yoke. Her mixed wool motor and travel coats featured knitted wool yokes in very dark tones. Her cotton or linen dresses and jackets had yokes with bright contrasts and belts of knitted wool.[34]
1934
A novelty introduced in January 1934 was the skirted bathing suit. A skirt was worn over maillot or flaring one-piece shorts. The separate skirt began to outmode the fuller covering previously given by a beach apron. Borea's "runner" consisted of two flared panels which opened up on both sides. She used a large printed cotton handkerchief, which was popular in St. Tropez. Her creativity showed in the stylishness which she exhibited, working the scarves into new forms to cover backless frocks. Often the skirt was one color, the maillot another, and the wraplet a third. Some favored combinations were dark blue, venetian pink, and pale yellow, or Chinese blue, old rose, and beige.[35]
Ski suit in Schenectady Gazette, 1 January 1934
1935
In May 1935, a copy of a Borea sundress sold for $5.95 in a Los Angeles store. Made of cotton Indianhead, the dress left the entire back open to soak in the sun's warmth. It featured a block print with a natural background and a design of green or purple lines. The block print was also adorned with turquoise, gold and coral (color). The sundress was fashionable to wear over a bathing suit for a luncheon indoors at a beach club.[36]
Borea's collection for fall 1935 included suits, jackets and long redingotes, which were semi-fitted with leg-o'-mutton sleeves. Her fashions had a widening shoulder line. Her sports suits were uniquely cut in soft colored tweeds and were worn with dark crape shirts. The short sleeves on these shirts were also widened. Borea's day clothes featured a number of shades of gray-green. These were accentuated with buttons and scarves of yellow or guardsman's red. Bishop violet was a prominent color of Borea's evening wear designs. A nubby woolen, woven with bear's hair, was featured in the designer's sports wear. Her wool daytime frocks had velvet belts and trimmings. Highlights included pine-cone rosettes, which replaced sports buttons. Pheasant feathers were exhibited as trimming.[37]
1936
In July, Borea released a white flannel suit especially for the "sea-cum-casino". Worn with a chali blouse, it had subtle differences from suits introduced by Lucien Lelong and other designers.[38]
1938
Borea' silhouette was characterized by moulded bodices, normal shoulders, small waists, and short skirts, with some of them pleated and others slightly flared. She often made use of linens for beach, town, and evening wear. She frequently employed an apronline, which was either draped or tied in the back. Other prominent features of note were striped and embroidered materials (often oriental types), and colored piping (sewing). Her colorful printed frocks were worn beneath slim, dark coats.[39]
1939
For fall 1939, Borea styled striped necktie wool dresses. Her daytime frocks were worn with necktie wool blouses and heavy leather belts. Wool jackets were shown with plain skirts. Full skirted dresses with shirtwaist bodices were a part of her evening wear. One design was made in red and green vertical stripes. It tucked in at the waist. Her evening gowns were inspired from portraits by Velasquez. The features included long sleeves and gold buttons, with modern shirtwaist effects.[40]
Tennis suit, 1948
1940
Flared basques were created by Borea for wear in the evenings. Her styles displayed screw-head buttons with a contrasting color on a square cut jacket. The look was very individual.[41]
1946
Borea's 1946 fall collection was presented on 12 September at her Paris salon, which had been redecorated with white and red and massed with red flowers. The lines of her clothing designs were simple, with natural shoulders. Fullness was eschewed except for drapery featured on a slim silhouette for evening. Among her fashions at the showing included a gray flannel ski suit with white leather suspenders and gold buckles. Borea introduced amber, mouse gray and moss green corduroy box jackets over tweed suits or simple turtleneck wool dresses. Her town dresses and suits employed black wool bands or were inset with black velvet. Perhaps her most attractive ensemble in the collection was a mouse gray jacket with a plum frock.[42]
1959
Borea designed a raincoat made from golden brown proofed corduroy. Its buttons were of embossed silver.[43]
Related Research Articles
A suit, lounge suit, or business suit is a set of clothes comprising a suit jacket and trousers of identical textiles generally worn with a collared dress shirt, necktie, and dress shoes. A skirt suit is similar, but with a matching skirt instead of trousers. It is currently considered semi-formal wear or business wear in contemporary Western dress codes, however when the suit was originally developed it was considered an informal or more casual option compared to the prevailing clothing standards of aristocrats and businessmen. The lounge suit originated in 19th-century Britain as sportswear and British country clothing, which is why it was seen as more casual than citywear at that time, with the roots of the suit coming from early modern Western Europe formal court or military clothes. After replacing the black frock coat in the early 20th century as regular daywear, a sober one-coloured suit became known as a lounge suit.
A tailcoat is a knee-length coat characterised by a rear section of the skirt, with the front of the skirt cut away.
A blouse is a loose-fitting upper garment that may be worn by workmen, peasants, artists, women, and children. It is typically gathered at the waist or hips so that it hangs loosely ("blouses") over the wearer's body. Today, the word most commonly refers to a girl's or woman's dress shirt, although there is considerable confusion between a true blouse and a women's shirt. It can also refer to a man's shirt if it is a loose-fitting style, though it rarely is. Traditionally, the term has been used to refer to a shirt which blouses out or has an unmistakably feminine appearance, although even many "standard" shirts today have a somewhat blousy fit, and the numbers of men wearing such shirts may match that of women wearing actual blouses.
1860s fashion in European and European-influenced countries is characterized by extremely full-skirted women's fashions relying on crinolines and hoops and the emergence of "alternative fashions" under the influence of the Artistic Dress movement.
Fashion in the 1890s in European and European-influenced countries is characterized by long elegant lines, tall collars, and the rise of sportswear. It was an era of great dress reforms led by the invention of the drop-frame safety bicycle, which allowed women the opportunity to ride bicycles more comfortably, and therefore, created the need for appropriate clothing.
1870s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by a gradual return to a narrow silhouette after the full-skirted fashions of the 1850s and 1860s.
A frock coat is a formal men's coat characterised by a knee-length skirt cut all around the base just above the knee, popular during the Victorian and Edwardian periods (1830s–1910s). It is a fitted, long-sleeved coat with a centre vent at the back and some features unusual in post-Victorian dress. These include the reverse collar and lapels, where the outer edge of the lapel is often cut from a separate piece of cloth from the main body and also a high degree of waist suppression around the waistcoat, where the coat's diameter round the waist is less than round the chest. This is achieved by a high horizontal waist seam with side bodies, which are extra panels of fabric above the waist used to pull in the naturally cylindrical drape. As was usual with all coats in the 19th century, shoulder padding was rare or minimal.
1840s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by a narrow, natural shoulder line following the exaggerated puffed sleeves of the later 1820s and 1830s. The narrower shoulder was accompanied by a lower waistline for both men and women.
1850s fashion in Western and Western-influenced clothing is characterized by an increase in the width of women's skirts supported by crinolines or hoops, the mass production of sewing machines, and the beginnings of dress reform. Masculine styles began to originate more in London, while female fashions originated almost exclusively in Paris.
Fashion in the years 1750–1775 in European countries and the colonial Americas was characterised by greater abundance, elaboration and intricacy in clothing designs, loved by the Rococo artistic trends of the period. The French and English styles of fashion were very different from one another. French style was defined by elaborate court dress, colourful and rich in decoration, worn by such iconic fashion figures as Marie Antoinette.
During the 1820s in European and European-influenced countries, fashionable women's clothing styles transitioned away from the classically influenced "Empire"/"Regency" styles of c. 1795–1820 and re-adopted elements that had been characteristic of most of the 18th century, such as full skirts and clearly visible corseting of the natural waist.
1880s fashion in Western and Western-influenced countries is characterized by the return of the bustle. The long, lean line of the late 1870s was replaced by a full, curvy silhouette with gradually widening shoulders. Fashionable waists were low and tiny below a full, low bust supported by a corset. The Rational Dress Society was founded in 1881 in reaction to the extremes of fashionable corsetry.
Fashion in the 1970s was about individuality. In the early 1970s, Vogue proclaimed "There are no rules in the fashion game now" due to overproduction flooding the market with cheap synthetic clothing. Common items included mini skirts, bell-bottoms popularized by hippies, vintage clothing from the 1950s and earlier, and the androgynous glam rock and disco styles that introduced platform shoes, bright colors, glitter, and satin.
The most characteristic North American fashion trend from the 1930s to 1945 was attention at the shoulder, with butterfly sleeves and banjo sleeves, and exaggerated shoulder pads for both men and women by the 1940s. The period also saw the first widespread use of man-made fibers, especially rayon for dresses and viscose for linings and lingerie, and synthetic nylon stockings. The zipper became widely used. These essentially U.S. developments were echoed, in varying degrees, in Britain and Europe. Suntans became fashionable in the early 1930s, along with travel to the resorts along the Mediterranean, in the Bahamas, and on the east coast of Florida where one can acquire a tan, leading to new categories of clothes: white dinner jackets for men and beach pajamas, halter tops, and bare midriffs for women.
Western fashion in the 1920s underwent a modernization. For women, fashion had continued to change away from the extravagant and restrictive styles of the Victorian and Edwardian periods, and towards looser clothing which revealed more of the arms and legs, that had begun at least a decade prior with the rising of hemlines to the ankle and the movement from the S-bend corset to the columnar silhouette of the 1910s. Men also began to wear less formal daily attire and athletic clothing or 'Sportswear' became a part of mainstream fashion for the first time. The 1920s are characterized by two distinct periods of fashion: in the early part of the decade, change was slower, and there was more reluctance to wear the new, revealing popular styles. From 1925, the public more passionately embraced the styles now typically associated with the Roaring Twenties. These styles continued to characterize fashion until the worldwide depression worsened in 1931.
Fashion in the period 1900–1909 in the Western world continued the severe, long and elegant lines of the late 1890s. Tall, stiff collars characterize the period, as do women's broad hats and full "Gibson Girl" hairstyles. A new, columnar silhouette introduced by the couturiers of Paris late in the decade signaled the approaching abandonment of the corset as an indispensable garment.
A dress is a garment traditionally worn by women or girls consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice. It consists of a top piece that covers the torso and hangs down over the legs. A dress can be any one-piece garment containing a skirt of any length, and can be formal or casual.
Vera Huppe Maxwell was an American pioneering sportswear and fashion designer.
A man's suit of clothes, in the sense of a lounge or business or office suit, is a set of garments which are crafted from the same cloth. This article discusses the history of the lounge suit, often called a business suit when featuring dark colors and a conservative cut.
The fashion of actress Audrey Hepburn, both on and off-screen, has impacted trends and pop culture, and she is considered a style icon.
References
↑ Couture – An illustrated History of the Great Paris designers and Their creations. Edited by Ruth Lynam with introduction by Nancy White, Doubleday & Company, Inc, New York City 1972, page 81 ["Vera Borea was the most outstanding of small couture houses dedicated to sportswear"]
↑ See Vogue French editions April 1938 and May 1947; Vogue US editions, February 1932, June 1933, May 1932, 1 June 1934 and June 1948
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
