JOYEUX NORELL

photo credit: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP

First Lady Michelle Obama in vintage Norman Norell at "Christmas in Washington" show

It’s truly funny how things happen…

This week, I was in a few different locations knee deep in archives researching various fashion show spectaculars that Eleanor Lambert staged in the 1940s and 1950s. I kept thinking about Norman Norell - and his work kept coming up time and time again. Of course, he was from Miss Lambert’s home state of Indiana, he was the very first winner of a Coty Award and he won so many Coty Awards that they created a new category of award – The Coty Hall of Fame. In addition, Miss Lambert was his publicist and dear friend. During my research this week, I came across some incredible pictures of four Norman Norell designs that were featured in The New York Times from 1958 and I really wanted to do a post on Norell but I kept thinking that I did not want to overdo it.

Then… our First Lady Michelle Obama makes history this week at “The Christmas in Washington” concert in Washington, DC dazzling in one-of-a-kind vintage number by designer Norman Norell!!

According to the The Huffington Post, The First Lady picked up the black-lace overlay dress, which boasted a full tea-length tulle style skirt and a square neckline (something rarely seen in contemporary designs), at New York Vintage boutique, signaling what store owner Jon Schneck believes to be the first time a first lady has worn a vintage dress to a public event, reports donned the elegant 1950s piece.

Maybe Michelle Obama will wear a vintage Norell sequined mermaid gown to a state dinner... here's hoping!

LILLY DACHE PART 2

Upstairs at my Grandmother Tiffany’s house was a wonderful place to explore. There was one room all the grandchildren especially loved -- which we called “The Queens Room.” It was painted pale pink and had art deco furniture with closets and chests full of clothes that my grandmother no longer wore – dresses, gowns, fur coats and on the closet shelves -- Lilly Dache hat boxes protecting the most incredible and stylish hats.

My grandmother used to say: “Well years ago, you bought your new hat before you bought your new dress.”

By the late 1920s, Lilly Dache was already a huge success. In fact, there was a Lilly Dache building on 56th Street!

In the 1930's during the depression, women tended to buy new hats instead of new clothes. In the 1940's clothing fabric was in restricted supply because of World War II, and hats continued to be in big demand because they were showy.

Lilly Dache saw that millinery might not continue in fashion forever, so she kept it her hats updated -- snoods with flowers, veils and bows as alternatives. In 1943, Norman Norell and Lilly Dache won the first Coty Awards – with Dache winning for millinery.

At the end of the 1950's Lilly Dache hired the young Halston Frowick. She also hired Kenneth Battelle to take charge of her hair salon. By the 1960's elaborate coiffures by Kenneth, as he was known, swept hats off the fashion map. All three – Lilly Dache, Halston and Kenneth were clients of Eleanor Lambert.

Miss Dache did not mourn the end of the millinery era. After her retirement, she rarely wore a hat; she preferred wigs.

I once told Miss Lambert about my grandmother's collection of Lilly Dache hats and she laughed and replied "Every stylish woman loved Lilly Dache... she also made the best turbans, she would make them right on your head."

THEY CAME FROM INDIANA... PART 4 NORELL

Norman Norell with models, 1959

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection, gift of Toni Tavan

close-up of Norell's plum colored mermaid dress, Decades, Los Angeles

gown by Norman Norell, New York Public Library Archives

Norman Norell

Norman Norell, another talent from Indiana… Noblesville, Indiana.

Norman Norell, born Norman David Levinson in 1900, went to New York at the age of 19 to study painting. Working as a theatrical and movie costume designer for Paramount and Brooks Costume Company, he designed costumes for Rudolph Valentino and for Gloria Swanson. From 1924 to 1928, Norell worked for Charles Armour.

In 1932 he joined Hattie Carnegie, who was a client of… you guessed it.. Eleanor Lambert!

While working for Hattie Carnegie he adapted Paris design models for the American market. There he learned French couture techniques and how to change the Parisian proportions to fit the American body. After 12 years with her, he left to join Anthony Traina, where he also enlisted the help of his friend Eleanor Lambert to work her PR magic. The first Traina-Norell collection was very successful.

In 1943 Norman Norell won the very the first Coty American Fashion Critics Award. He won the award in again in 1951 and 1956. With the death of Traina, the firm was renamed Norman Norell. Jersey sequinned dresses (the Mermaid Dresses) were one of his hallmarks.

I remember at one Council of Fashion Designer of America Awards Ceremony in the 1990s, Lauren Bacall proclaiming Norman Norell and Halston as two of her top four greatest fashion influences, she said...

'"Norman Norell and Halston were two of the greatest American designers of all time... In fact, they were two of the greatest designers of all time!"

You can't argue with Lauren Bacall, I know I dont!

partial source: Smithsonian Archives