Getting ready to celebrate Erte!

29. June 2009 by admin.

Justine Ferreri’s fascination with the famous costume and fashion designer, Erte, began in her early twenties as she was exploring her own fashion preferences and discovering her inner artist.  An avid interpretive dancer who was involved in many performances, Justine tells the story of the year she set and met her goal of wearing new, unusual and sometimes flamboyant outfits everyday.  

Three hundred and sixty-five days of something new … how did she afford it?  She was going green before anyone thought of going “green”!  That’s Justine.  Always a step ahead.Justine reached her goal by shopping and recycling her vintage clothing at second hand stores in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Her eyes sparkle as she recalls the days she would wear a sari, dress as an Asian or Arabian woman, circus performer whatever struck her fancy.  This began her fascination with the world of costume design and designers. 

Her crazed and unending love affair with Erte’s designs was built from her own flare for the imaginative, ornate, showy and brilliant.Erte’s designs were worn by many of the most famous women of the day in theater, film, and politics including Lillian Gish, Marion Davies, Mata Hari, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, and Anna Pavlova.  As Justine pulls out her heavy book filled with Erte designs, she tells me of Erte’s work with Harper’s Bazaar, then shows me pictures of his flamboyant fashion designs with elaborately plumed hats and long, flowing dresses perfectly capturing the emerging design aesthetic of the Art Deco period.  It is this splendid and gloriously extravagant flare that Justine works with as she captures her own version of Erte’s designs in clay.

Erte worked for Harper’s Bazaar for over 20 years, creating more than 200 magazine covers for the publication. While there, he was also approached to design stage sets and costumes for the girls of the famous Folies-Bergère and at the George White’s Scandals Club in New York City. He also worked in the 1920s and 1930s on film costume design at the MGM Studios in Hollywood as well as opera and theatrical productions, any venue where he could indulge his eye and appreciation for exotic human forms that were scandalously costumed and exuding the sexual power of the female body.  The American public was exposed to Erte’s work through some extravagant designs he did for productions at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Erte’s first designs were done before he was 10 years old, and continued throughout his life.  He was productive into his 90s.  Born on November 23, 1892, the Russian fashion and costume designer Romaine de Tirtoff, also know as Erte (which is the French pronunciation of his initials, R.T.), died in France at 98.  Today many of his designs are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Institution and other museums throughout the world.

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