Circa 1950

France

Magnificent cocktail or dinner dress in black Calais lace, known as Chantilly lace, dating from the late 1940s and inspired by Christian Dior's New-look period in France. The dress has a frock coat cut, three-quarter length kimono sleeves with turn-ups at the elbows, and a collar with turned-down panels that opens onto a cinched waist and is stapled at the waist. Corolla’ skirt with tapered panels that open out to more than 180°. The rigid tulle structure is lined on top with black Calais lace, the motifs of which are reminiscent of the imperial taste of the French Second Empire. Woven label in cream silk with black lettering soberly indicating Germaine Lecomte. No flaws to note. Under dress to be provided. Very good colour and condition.

Dimensions: Equivalent size 38-39 France. Height 121 cm, Shoulders 38 cm, Sleeves 32 cm, Chest 91 cm, Waist 70 cm, Hips 120 cm, circumference bottom of skirt 381 cm.

Germaine Lecomte (1889-1966) was a member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture française, and less well known than her competitors of the time, such as Nina Ricci, Patou, Chanel, Vionnet and Schiaparelli. Despite the crisis of the 1930s and the Second World War, her reputation crossed the Atlantic and her creations were admired at fashion shows. Germaine Lecomte rivalled the greatest fashion houses of the period. In 1942, she moved to 9 avenue Matignon in Paris. A ‘sculptress’ of fashion, she dressed women of the upper middle classes and nobility as well as film stars during the Twenties and the Second World war. After the Second World War, it re-established its commercial relations throughout Europe, with the United States, Latin America, Egypt and Lebanon, and set up a subsidiary in Lausanne, Switzerland. She worked for many of the celebrities of the day, for the cinema and for courts all over Europe, and added perfumes to her couture: ‘amour sorcier’ and ‘soir de fête’. With her partner, the painter René Durey (1890-1959), she was at the heart of the artistic and social life of Paris, and was also present at the Cannes Film Festival in 1947. The Germaine Lecomte fashion house closed in 1957.