Woman's Coat by Lucien Lelong

Lelong coat front - edited.jpg
Lelong coat back - edited.jpg
lelong tag.jpg
Prosanis Inner Pocket Tag.jpg

Subject

Clothing and Dress

Title

Woman's Coat by Lucien Lelong

Date

ca. 1926

A tag stitched to the inside of an inner pocket on the proper left of the coat states that the garment was “produced under conditions approved by Prosanis Joint Board Sanitary Control” followed by “New York City – March 31 ’26.” This label means that the manufacturer allowed the Joint Board Sanitary Control New York City to inspect their facility and it was found to provide safe and healthy working conditions. It also allows for more specific dating, as the Joint Board Sanitary Control New York City only used this tag between 1924 and 1929. The date on the bottom of the tag, March 31, 1926, is not likely the exact date the coat was manufactured, but gives a specific season and year, indicating that the coat was created for the spring/summer of 1926.

Format

The body of the coat is boxy and straight, 43” long from the top of the neckline to the bottom of the hem at the center back, with 20” gores extending from the top edge of the hem decorative loops to 4.5” from the bottom of the sleeve seam. The neckline has braiding along the upper edge, with gathering and four lines of stitching, up to 1.5” below the bottom of the decoration. The coat has raglan sleeves, 24” long from the top of the sleeve inset to the sleeve hem.

Description

This coat of beige silk crepe decorated with braid and cording has a label identifying it as designed by Lucien Lelong (1889-1958). The tag stitched into the lining of the coat labels it as Lucien Lelong, made in Paris, France at 16 Rue Matignon and includes the phrase “Modèle Déposé,” meaning “registered design/pattern.” A second label, stitched to the inside of an inner pocket on the proper left of the coat states that the garment was “produced under conditions approved by Prosanis Joint Board Sanitary Control” followed by “New York City – March 31 ’26.” 

This garment likely functioned as a lightweight spring coat, based on its manufacture date, its silk material, and advertisements of similar coats from the same season and decade: spring/summer of the 1920s. Spring coats were commonly considered sportswear; however, they would be worn with various kinds of outfits. They often came in neutral colors, like the beige color of this coat, or in brighter “sporty” colors. The coat would have been worn with the collar folded over to show the decorations on the inside of the coat, and belted, with a loose-fitting, boxy silhouette. 

The decorations on the hem, cuffs, and inner lapel are inspired by traditional South Asian or Middle Eastern dress, which corresponds to the trends of the 1920s. Including Eastern influences in Western dress had been popular since the 18th century. There are large designs of ovals, lines, and curlicues around the hem, on the cuffs, and inside the lapels from the neckline. The decorations are done in couched cording, sewn braid, and double cording; wave patterns used to fill the shapes are made up of soutache braids.

The two tags on the coat create an interesting contradiction. The Prosanis label was created by the Label Division of the Joint Board of Sanitary Control of New York’s International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union in association with the National Consumers League. The National Consumers League was founded in 1899, “on the belief that consumers would not purchase products, even products that cost comparably less, if they knew that the goods were produced under exploitative, unsafe or unsanitary working conditions.” States would then create their own branches under the national umbrella. The National Consumers League supported legislation that was introduced to the 68th Congress in 1924 collectively titled the “Truth-in-Fabric and Misbranding Bills,” the goal of which was to require that garments have a label that specified content so consumers would know what they were buying; the bills ultimately did not become law.

There seems to be no connection between this American committee and Lelong’s Parisian couture house. It is possible that Lelong applied for this label to be sewn into garments he was selling to American customers, as the National Consumers’ League required manufacturers to submit an application for review. In a report from 1911, however, cited in the Work of National Consumers’ League, Volume II, only businesses from a few states were listed and no records suggest that the National Consumers’ League attempted to work internationally.

Another possibility is that the coat was inspected upon its import to the United States and that the Joint Board of Sanitary Control either sent someone to inspect Lelong’s couture house or reviewed his financial records remotely in order to provide this label. However, there is also no indication that the National Consumers’ League was involved with imported goods. By 1926, the year the Lelong coat was likely manufactured, Lelong was employing 1,200 staff, which could be of interest to the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union if they had reason to believe these 1,200 workers were not being treated appropriately, but it is more likely they would have brought these concerns to a European organization and not the Joint Board of Sanitary Control in New York City.

In addition, there are some details that indicate amateur sewing abilities, less skilled than would be found in a Parisian couture house. The garment has a combination of machine sewn and hand stitched sections. The inner lining and Lucien Lelong label have been attached to the outer shell of the coat with looser hand stitches in comparison to the clean machine sewing along the outer seams and neckline of the coat. There also seem to be no surviving extant garments or sketches of Lelong’s that look similar to the coat in question, leading to the conclusion that the coat may not truly be the work of Lucien Lelong. It seems more likely that the coat was purchased from a United States business which had been approved by the Prosanis Joint Board Sanitary Control and the Lucien Lelong tag was affixed later.

This coat is most intriguing for its mystery. It is clearly a fashionable coat, in keeping with the trends of the 1920s, but the contradiction of the two tags is the ambiguity. It creates questions; is this coat a licensed copy of a Lelong original made in the United States, or does the design and label indicate an attempt to sell a pirated copy of a Lelong? Today the idea of faking a designer piece in this way may seem almost silly; when the designer label is on the inside, it cannot be recognized from the outside. The emphasis now is on logos and making them clearly visible to passersby, even covering garments and accessories with an iconic designer brand logo to give the appearance of wealth and sophistication.

References

“Doing Couture? Why You Might Be Breaking the Law.” Create A Fashion Brand, May 25, 2017. http://www.createafashionbrand.com/doing-couture-why-you-might-be-breaking-the-law/.

Dudbridge, Saxony. “Lucien Lelong Biography.” Web log. Catwalk Yourself (blog). Accessed February 20, 2021. http://www.catwalkyourself.com/fashion-biographies/lucien-lelong/.

Goldmark, Josephine, Francis McLean, James T. Bixby, Alice Lakey, Edith Kendall, Arthur N. Holcombe, Rosamond Kimball, G. Hermann Kinnicutt, and Frederick C. Manvel. "Work of National Consumers' League, Volume II." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 38 (1911): 1-77. Accessed March 1, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1012005.

“History.” FHCM. Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. Accessed February 27, 2021. https://fhcm.paris/en/the-federation/history/.

“Lucien Lelong.” Web log. witness2fashion (blog). Wordpress.com, October 14, 2015. https://witness2fashion.wordpress.com/tag/lucien-lelong/.

National Consumers League Papers. The Library of Congress. Accessed February 27, 2021. http://lcweb2.loc.gov:8081/ammem/amrlhtml/dirconsu.html.

“Prosanis.” Vintage Fashion Guild, July 28, 2010. https://vintagefashionguild.org/label-resource/prosanis/.

Sessions, Debbie. “1920s Coats, Furs, Jackets and Capes History.” Web log. Vintage Dancer (blog), September 3, 2013. https://vintagedancer.com/1920s/womens-coats-of-the-1920s/. .

Truth-in-Fabric Legislation. The Library of Congress. Accessed February 27, 2021. http://lcweb2.loc.gov:8081/ammem/amrlhtml/dtfabric.html.

Source

Donor: William Bruce Glass
Dennis and Tanya Glass

Identifier

URI 2002.14.26

Contributor

Cora Staber

Creator

Lucien Lelong label - please see information under the description of the garment. 

A tag stitched into the lining of the coat labels it as Lucien Lelong, made in Paris, France at 16 Rue Matignon. The tag also has the phrase “Modèle Déposé,” meaning “registered design/pattern.” This acts similarly to a patent, denoting it as being registered with the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, of which Lelong became president in 1937, and legally allowing the garment to be called couture. The term “Haute Couture” is protected by the French government dating as far back as the 18th century and the phrase can only be used by those fashion houses which have been granted the designation by the French Ministry of Industry.

Citation

Lucien Lelong label - please see information under the description of the garment. A tag stitched into the lining of the coat labels it as Lucien Lelong, made in Paris, France at 16 Rue Matignon. The tag also has the phrase “Modèle Déposé,” meaning “registered design/pattern.” This acts similarly to a patent, denoting it as being registered with the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, of which Lelong became president in 1937, and legally allowing the garment to be called couture. The term “Haute Couture” is protected by the French government dating as far back as the 18th century and the phrase can only be used by those fashion houses which have been granted the designation by the French Ministry of Industry., “Woman's Coat by Lucien Lelong,” Historic Textile and Costume Collection, accessed March 29, 2024, https://uritextilecollection.omeka.net/items/show/467.