Mainbocher is a fashion label founded by the American couturier Main Rousseau Bocher (October 24, 1890 – December 27, 1976), also known as Mainbocher (pronounced "Maine-Bow-Shay"). Established in 1929, the house of Mainbocher successfully operated in Paris (1929–1939), and then in New York (1940–1971).

French years (1929–1939)

In November 1929, Main Rousseau Bocher merged his own name, in honor of his favorite couturieres, Augustabernard and Louiseboulanger, and established his own fashion house, incorporated as "Mainbocher Couture" at 12 Avenue George-V in Paris. Mainbocher progressively gained recognition for his high quality couture garments. The strapless dress and jeweled cashmere sweaters are his creations. Described in 1950 as "one of the most photographed and most copied dresses of modern times", the bridal dress is today part of the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute collection. Hamish Bowles later said: "I think [Mainbocher's clothes] are so subtle, the detailing is so extraordinary, and they are so unbelievably evocative of ... absolute subtle luxury. You can really see why a client like Wallis Windsor would have been drawn to his clothes, and why she became so emblematic of his work."

Mainbocher's last Paris collections created a storm of controversy. Anticipating Christian Dior's "New Look" by eight years, the "wasp waist", a nipped-in waist, radically altered the silhouette of the thirties. Dior himself confessed: "Mainbocher is really in advance of us all, because he does it in America." The corset that shaped Mainbocher's last Parisian collection was immortalized in 1939 by one of Horst P. Horst's most famous photographs, known as the "Mainbocher Corset." Mainbocher's corseted waist, defined bosom, and back draping was an abrupt shift in silhouette and introduced the Victorian motifs that were to pervade the forties. In his book Decades: A Century of Fashion, in which he named Mainbocher "the designer of the 30's," Cameron Silver further noted that "Mainbocher's designs oozed exclusivity, good breeding, and rarefied taste."

American years (1940–1971)

The onset of Second World War forced Mainbocher to leave France. In 1940, he relocated his business to New York on 57th Street next to Tiffany's and established "Mainbocher Inc." He recreated his Paris salons exactly as they were and stayed to true to haute couture traditions.

The corset controversy proved to be a timely marketing opportunity; the house of Mainbocher teamed up with the Warner Brothers Corset Company and streamlined the design for mass production. He then updated the uniforms of the American Red Cross, and in 1948, he unified the uniforms of Girl Scouts in the same shade of green. In 1950, he designed a one of a kind evening dress uniform for Colonel Katherine Amelia Towle, who was then Director of Women Marines (USMCR). This unique uniform is now on display at the armory of the Newport Artillery Company in Newport, Rhode Island.

In New York, Mainbocher continued to dress generations of women like debutante Brenda Frazier, Doris Duke, Adele Astaire, Elizabeth Parke Firestone, Gloria Vanderbilt, Lila Wallace, Bunny Mellon, Babe Paley, Princess Maria Cristina de Bourbon, Kathryn Miller, and C. Z. Guest.

Mainbocher's fashion designs have been displayed in many exhibitions over the years. In 2010, the Museum of the City of New York created a virtual exhibition on Worth & Mainbocher, which was the first to emphasize Mainbocher's work.

The first retrospective dedicated to Mainbocher, entitled Making Mainbocher, took place at the Chicago History Museum from October 2016 to August 2017. This exhibition was partly sponsored by Luvanis, which is the current owner of the brand.

See also

  • Haute couture
  • Charles James

References

Further reading

  • Morris, Bethany D., Mainbocher: Veiled Innovation, Master's thesis, Fashion Institute of Technology, 2003.
  • Resnikoff, Shoshana, Sailors in Skirts: Mainbocher and the Making of the Navy WAVES, Master's thesis, University of Delaware, 2012.
  • Samek, Susan M., "Uniformly Feminine: The 'Working Chic' of Mainbocher," Dress 20:1 (1993): pp. 33–44.
  • Sinklard, Petra (dir.), Making Mainbocher: The First American Couturier, catalogue d'exposition, Chicago, Chicago History Museum, 2016.
  • Steele, Valerie, The Corset: A Cultural History, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2003.
  • Wimberley, Virginia S., Maureen M. Grasso, and Fawn S. Mahajan, "Mainbocher – A Couturier's Contribution to Material Culture," Material History Review 37 (1993): pp. 5–19.
  • Official Mainbocher website
  • Mainbocher papers, 1880s-1977 (bulk, 1932-1974) from the Irene Lewisohn Costume Reference Library, the Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
  • Mainbocher garments in the Chicago History Museum costume collection