Advent Calendar: Day 19

By Circe -

In 1945, Paris was devastated. The war may have been over, but the struggle for survival was not. Luxuries were unheard of; basic necessities were difficult to come by.

Still, they would not give up their stranglehold on fashion.

With materials scarce, the tailors and seamstresses of Paris revived an old tradition of sending their designs out for inspection, not on models, but on mannequins. A series of blank-faced figures, about two feet tall, were clothed in exquisitely detailed miniature versions of the latest fashions in real silk, leather, cotton, fur, and wool, complete with tiny beading and working buckles. After debuting in France as "Le Théâtre de la Mode", the exhibit was rechristened "Fantasy of Fashion" in English, and sent 'round the world as proof that Paris still survived.

At the end of the international exhibition, no one seemed to know quite what to do with the figures. After spending some time neglected in the basement of a department store, the entire lot was sold to a woman collecting items for a strange, remote little art museum in the Pacific Northwest, where the "dolls" sat until rediscovered in the 1980s. That part of the story is told in part of the Articles of Interest miniseries, run by the podcast 99% Invisible.

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