La jupe culotte all'Esposizione di Torino 1911 - Padiglione delle ferrovie

Catalog Level
Items (Cataloging Focus)

Title Proper/Title Text
La jupe culotte all'Esposizione di Torino 1911 - Padiglione delle ferrovie

Date of Publication/Creation Date
1911 ca.

Inscription Language
Italian (Language)

General Subject Terms

• Fashion Design

Descriptive Note Text

This is a printed postcard that combines a topical fashion illustration with a small view of the “Padiglione delle Ferrovie” (Railway Pavilion).

A young woman fills most of the card, caught mid-step in a playful, almost dancing pose. Her right hand rests on her hip, her left leg kicks back, and she looks out at the viewer. She wears the fashion the card is named for: the jupe-culotte, or trouser-skirt. Its full, gathered legs are cinched at the ankle with embroidered cuffs, and below them are pointed, heeled shoes. Above the trousers the outfit fits closely through the hips and is banded with ornate scrollwork borders. The bodice has a deep V neckline with a lace insert. A spray of flowers is tucked at the waist, and she wears a pearl necklace with a pendant. A long, fringed stole with an embroidered border falls over everything. It loops over her shoulders, sweeps down past her knees, and trails off into soft, sketchy wisps that fade into the background. On her head is a draped turban topped by a tall aigrette, a spray of feathers or beaded quills. Dark curls frame her face beneath it.

The upper right holds a small halftone photograph of the Railway Pavilion inside an Art Nouveau (Liberty-style) frame with curling, molded edges. 

The jupe-culotte burst into the news in early 1911, when Paris couturiers presented trouser-skirts that winter and spring. Women who wore them in public drew jeering crowds and caricatures in Paris, Milan, Rome, Madrid, and elsewhere, and that controversy peaked just as the Turin exposition opened. The card’s Orientalist styling, with its turban, aigrette, and harem-style trousers, reflects the same “Eastern” vogue that Poiret and the Ballets Russes’ Shéhérazade (1910) had made fashionable. Publishers churned out jupe-culotte cards in series, often pairing one stock figure with different local views. 

The postcard was mailed to Paris. It has no note or greeting message.

Current Repository/Geographic Location
Cristina Della Coletta Private Collection (San Diego, USA)

Current Repository Numbers
CDC-PC-MISC-0007