La jupe culotte all'Esposizione di Torino 1911 - Padiglione inglese

Catalog Level
Items (Cataloging Focus)

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

Date of Publication/Creation Date
1911 ca.

Inscription Language
Italian (Language)

General Subject Terms

• Fashion Design

Descriptive Note Text

This is a souvenir postcard from the 1911 Turin International Exposition that combines two of that year’s attractions: the fair itself and the fashion sensation of the moment, the jupe-culotte. The card is divided between a framed photographic view of the Pavilion of England on the left and a hand-drawn figure on the right.  The photo is set in an elaborate Art Nouveau frame, with whiplash curves, a scrolling crest at the top, and acanthus-like ornament below. It rests on a fluted pedestal, so the view looks like a framed picture on display.

A young woman stands in three-quarter view, raising a folding fan above her head in a theatrical pose. Her dark hair is worn in a fashionable bandeau with a rosette at the side. She wears a sleeveless, low-cut tunic with vertical stripes and a gathered bodice. It is cinched at the waist by a sash with large rosette ornaments. Below the waist, the tunic is decorated with bold S-scroll embroidery and finished with a lace hem. Under it she wears full, gathered “harem” trousers that balloon and tie at the ankle, along with heeled pumps trimmed with pompoms. Bangles at her wrist complete the look.

The jupe-culotte (trouser-skirt or harem skirt) was launched by Paris couture houses in early 1911, influenced by the Orientalist taste that Poiret and the Ballets Russes had made fashionable. It caused a real public scandal. Women who wore it in the streets of Paris, Madrid, London, and Italian cities drew mocking crowds, and the press and postcard publishers treated it as a mix of novelty, satire, and mild titillation. 

The postcard was mailed to Paris but has no greetings or message. 

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

Current Repository Numbers
CDC-PC-MISC-0006