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Abstract
Late nineteenth-century fashion in Barcelona is examined through the development of the dressmaker’s craft, taking account of the historical context and changes in society at the turn of the century. Analysis of the production process, surviving garments and archival evidence demonstrates that a substantial change took place in the organization of the dressmaking industry in Barcelona in the late nineteenth century. This included the insertion of dressmakers’ labels in the most technically and stylistically sophisticated garments, signalling an increasing recognition of leading dressmakers — a process similar to that found in French couture. Juana Valls has been identified as a key designer who, although almost unknown today, was highly successful and prominent at the turn of the twentieth century; a brief biography of Valls is developed. Finally, following this evolutionary period, the year 1919 is proposed as a turning point for Catalan and Spanish couture.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all the museums that have collaborated in this research. I am also grateful to Professor Mireia Freixa for her encouragement and advice during my PhD research project. Lastly I would like to thank Alexandra Kim, Valerie Cumming, and Penelope Byrde Ruddock for their skilful editing and valuable advice.
Notes
1 Judith G. Coffin, The Politics of Women’s Work: The Paris Garment Trades, 1750–1915 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996); François Tétart-Vittu, ‘The French–English Go-Between: Le Modèle de Paris or the Beginning of the Designer, 1820–1880’, Costume, 26 (1992), 40–45. See also Elizabeth Ann Coleman, The Opulent Era. Fashions of Worth, Doucet and Pingat (New York: The Brooklyn Museum, 1989); Phillippe Perrot, Le travail des apparences. Le corps féminin. XVIII–XIX siècle (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1984); Henriette Vanier, La mode et ses métiers. Frivolités et luttes des classes. 1830–1870 (Paris: Éditions Armand Colin, 1960); Janet Arnold, ‘The Dressmaker’s Craft’, Costume, 7 (1973), 29–40; Madeleine Ginsburg, ‘The Tailoring and Dressmaking Trades, 1700–1850’, Costume, 6 (1972), 64–71 and ‘Clothing Manufacture 1860–1890’, Costume, 2 (1968), 2–9; Pamela A. Parmal, ‘Fashion and the Growing Importance of the Marchande des Modes in Mid-Eighteenth-Century France’, Costume, 31 (1997), 68–77; Pat Trautman, ‘Personal Clothiers: A Demographic Study of Dressmakers, Seamstresses and Tailors 1880–1920’, Dress, 5 (1979), 74–95.
2 Coffin, The Politics of Women’s Work, pp. 4–5.
3 Coffin, The Politics of Women’s Work, p. 13.
4 Coffin, The Politics of Women’s Work, pp. 20–21.
5 Coffin, The Politics of Women’s Work, p. 5.
6 Laura Casal-Valls, ‘The Dressmaker and the Beginning of Haute Couture in Barcelona: Professional Career and Female Clothes Production’ (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Barcelona, 2013).
7 Pablo Pena, ‘Los profesionales del traje en el Madrid Romántico’, Anales del Instituto de estudios Madrileños, 40 (2000), 283–300; Mercedes Pasalodos, ‘El traje como reflejo de lo femenino: Evolución y significado. Madrid 1898–1915’ (Unpublished PhD thesis, University Complutense of Madrid, 2000); Miren Arzalluz, Cristóbal Balenciaga: La forja del Maestro (1885–1936) (San Sebastián: Editorial Nerea, 2010).
8 Rosa Maria Martín and Helios Rubio, ‘Carolina i Maria Montagne: pioneres de l’Alta costura a Catalunya’, L’Avenç, 295 (2004), 22–27; and Rosa Maria Martín, ‘Indumentària’, Arts de Catalunya. Disseny. Vestit. Moneda i medalles (Barcelona: Edicions L’Isard, 1997), pp. 146–246.
9 Sílvia Carbonell and Josep Casamartina, Les fàbriques i els somnis. Modernisme tèxtil a Catalunya (Terrassa: Centre de Documentació i Museu Tèxtil, 2002); Josep Casamartina, Barcelona Alta Costura (Barcelona: Edicions El Triangle Postals, 2010).
10 In addition to various scientific papers and my doctoral thesis (‘The Dressmaker and the Beginning of Haute Couture in Barcelona’, 2013), see also Laura Casal-Valls, Del treball anònim a l’etiqueta: modistes i context social a la Barcelona del segle XIX (Barcelona: Dux Editorial, 2012) and Casal-Valls, ‘Joana Valls: The Echo of Modernity’, Datatextil, 33 (2015), 2–8.
11 Arzalluz, Cristóbal Balenciaga, pp. 117–20.
12 Regina Lee Blaszczyk (ed.), Producing Fashion: Commerce, Culture, and Consumers (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007), p. 64. See also Lesley Miller, Balenciaga (1895–1972): The Couturiers’ Couturier (London: V&A Publications, 2007), p. 19.
13 Amy de la Haye and Valerie D. Mendes, The House of Worth: Portrait of an Archive (London: V&A Publications, 2014), p. 6. See also Coleman, The Opulent Era, p. 9.
14 Claire Wilcox, ‘Introduction’, in The Golden Age of Couture. Paris and London 1947–57, ed. by Claire Wilcox (London: V&A Publications, 2007), p. 12.
15 Jan Glier Reeder, High Style: Masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: The Metropolitan Museum, 2010), p. 33.
16 Coleman, The Opulent Era, p. 108.
17 Miller, Balenciaga, p. 30.
18 Arzalluz, Cristóbal Balenciaga, pp. 14 and 153.
19 Arzalluz, Cristóbal Balenciaga, p. 12.
20 Arzalluz, Cristóbal Balenciaga, p. 11 and p. 63.
21 La Época, 4 November 1903, p. 3.
22 Wilcox, ‘Introduction’, p. 12.
23 Pablo Pena, ‘The Demise and Transfiguration of Haute Couture’, Indumenta: Revista del Museo del Traje, 1 (2009), 8–21 (pp. 8–10).
24 Martín and Rubio, ‘Carolina i Maria Montagne’, pp. 22–27 and Casal-Valls, Del treball anònim, p. 95.
25 Jesus Cruz, The Rise of Middle-Class Culture in Nineteenth-Century Spain (Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 2011), p. 135.
26 Ralph Odell, Cotton Goods in Spain and Portugal (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1911), pp. 15–16. Cited in Joan Maluquer, ‘Activitats econòmiques’, in Història de Barcelona, ed. by Jaume Sobrequés (Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, 1995), vol. 6, pp. 187–215.
27 Ferran Segura, ‘Política urbanística i creixement urbà’, in Sobrequés, Història de Barcelona, vol. 6, pp. 228–58.
28 Fraser Kennedy, The Fashionable Mind (New York: Knopf, 1987), p. 84, in Miller, Balenciaga, p. 64.
29 Casal-Valls, ‘The Dressmaker and the Beginning of Haute Couture in Barcelona’, pp. 581–600.
30 Pierre Bourdieu, La distinction, Critique sociale du jugement (Paris: Éditions du minuit, 1979).
31 Cruz, The Rise of Middle-Class Culture, p. 121.
32 Cruz, The Rise of Middle-Class Culture, p. 125.
33 Cruz, The Rise of Middle-Class Culture, p. 127.
34 Cruz, The Rise of Middle-Class Culture, p. 128.
35 Sílvia Ventosa, ‘Spain’, in Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, ed. by Lise Skov (New York: Berg Publishers, 2010), p. 271.
36 Cruz, The Rise of Middle-Class Culture, p. 150.
37 Gilles Lipovetsky, El imperio de lo efímero: la moda y su destino en las sociedades modernas (Barcelona: Editorial Anagrama, 1990), p. 104.
38 This dress is conserved in the Textile Museum and Documentation Centre (Terrassa, Spain), 11904.
39 Francesc Curet, Visions Barcelonines II: Botigues, obradors i cases de menjar i beure (Barcelona: Alta Fulla, 1981–1983), p. 92.
40 Juanjo Romero, ‘La força d’una cadena descansa sobre l’anella més dèbil: Mestressses artesanes barcelonines al segle XIX’, Barcelona Quaderns d’Història, 11 (2004), 93–100 (p. 96).
41 Marta Vicente, ‘Mujeres artesanas en la Barcelona Moderna’, in Las mujeres en el antiguo régimen. Imagen y realidad, ed. by Isabel Pérez Molina (Barcelona: Editorial Icaria, 1994), pp. 57–89 (p. 59); and Real Cédula de S. M. y Señores del Consejo (de 2 de septiembre de 1784) por la qual se declara a favor de todas las mugeres del Reyno la facultad de trabajar en la manufactura de hilos, como en todas las demás Artes en que quieran ocuparse, y sean compatibles con el decoro, y fuerzas de su sexo, con lo demás que se expresa (Bilbao: Viuda de Antonio de Egusquiza, 1784).
42 Casal-Valls, ‘The Dressmaker and the Beginning of Haute Couture in Barcelona’, pp. 480–83.
43 Clare Haru Crowston, Fabricating Women: The Seamstresses of Old Regime France, 1675–1791 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001), pp. 174–75.
44 Almanach de l'Esquella de la Torratxa 1889 (Barcelona: Lopez Editor, 1889), p. 119.
45 Anuario Riera. Guia General de Cataluña de 1896 (Barcelona: Ediciones Bailly-Baillière, 1896), pp. 294–96.
46 Manuel Saurí, Manual Histórico-topográfico estadístico y administrativo o sea Guia General de Barcelona dedicado a la Junta de Fábricas de Cataluña (Barcelona: Imprenta y Liberería de D. Manuel Saurí, 1849), p. 268; and La Exposición, 48 (1888), p. 2.
47 Juan Paulis, Las obreras de la aguja (Barcelona: Editorial Ibérica, 1913).
48 La Vanguardia, 13 May 1908, p. 10.
49 Report of the Government, Contribución industrial y de comercio. Reglamento y tarifas aprobadas por Real orden de 13 de julio de 1906 anotados y seguidos de un índice alfabético por la Redacción de la Revista de los tribunales y de la legislación universal (Madrid: Centro Editorial Góngora, 1906), pp. 149–347.
50 This dress is conserved in Sabadell History Museum (Sabadell, Spain), 13325.
51 La Publicidad, 2526 (1885), p. 2.
52 Garba, 6 (1905), p. 17.
53 Lluïsa Sala, ‘Joan Roig i Soler. Llibreta de comptes (1881–1908). MS-3023 Biblioteca de Catalunya-Estudi i transcripció’, Butlletí de la Reial Acadèmia de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi, 15 (2001), pp. 168, 183, 199, 202, 216.
54 Frederic Mompou to Josefina Dencausse, manuscript, 17 March 1913, Biblioteca Nacional de Catalunya (BNC), M 5022/3.
55 ‘Antigua Casa Camps’, 1908, BNC, box V (7) C.
56 Information from Anuario Riera. Guía general de Cataluña. Comercio, Industria, Profesiones, Artes y Oficios, Propiedad Urbana, Rústica y Pecuaria, Datos Estadísticos, Geográficos y descriptivos y Sección de propaganda (Barcelona: Centro de Propaganda Mercantil, 1896–1904).
57 Official request written by Carmen Ruiz i Alá to Barcelona Council, Barcelona, 8 February 1881. Arxiu General de la Diputació de Barcelona (AGDB), Archivo General de la Diputación de Barcelona, box 2279, exp. 1, entitled Expediente general de la Escuela Especial de corte agregada a la Normal de Maestras, 1881–1892, fol. 1–2.
58 Data from a database on patent applications (1878–1929), held by the Spanish Patents and Trademarks Office, Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade.
59 La Il·lustració Catalana, 144 (1906), p. 15.
60 See the postcards sent by them. BNC, box V (7) C.
61 La Veu de Catalunya, 7367 (1919), p. 7.
62 Arxiu Municipal Contemporani de Barcelona (AMCB), Registration of Births, book 1/ 1855, n. 986.
63 In Spain, women kept their family name and only in some cases took on their husband’s surname as a second surname, preceded by the determiner ‘de’ (of).
64 Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó (ACA), Hisenda, Matrícules Industrials, 1883–1884, inv. 1, n. 16513; and ACA, Hisenda, Matrícules Industrials, 1910, inv. 1, n. 9661.
65 Juan Valero, Guide illustré de l'exposition universelle de Barcelone en 1888, de la ville, de ses curiosités et de ses environs (Barcelona: G de Grau et cie, 1888), p. 157.
66 La Veu de Catalunya, 7367 (1919), p. 7.
67 Narcís Oller, La Febre d’Or (Barcelona: Edicions 62, 1980), p. 142. See also Francesc Soler, Lo trinch de l’or: comedia en quatre actes (1884) (Barcelona: Imp. Salvador Bonavía, 1911), p. 20.
68 Joaquim Maria Nadal, Recuerdos de medio siglo. Siluetas y perfiles barceloneses (Madrid: Ediciones, 1957), p. 12.
69 La Publicidad, 7970 (1900), p. 1.
70 Miren Arzalluz, ‘The Role of the Client in the Creation and Popularizing of New Trends’, in Pedro Rodríguez: Catalogue of Maria Brilla’s Dresses, ed. by Institut de Cultura. Ajuntament de Barcelona (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2012), p. 67.
71 La Veu de Catalunya, 7189 (1919), p. 7.
72 La Veu de Catalunya, 7367 (1919), p. 7. About Pedro Rodríguez, see Sílvia Rosés, ‘Pedro Rodríguez: el nacimiento de una casa y la evolución de un estilo’, in Pedro Rodríguez: Catalogue of Maria Brilla’s Dresses.
73 Ventosa, ‘Spain’, p. 272.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Laura Casal-Valls
Laura Casal-Valls holds a PhD in history of art and has specialized in the history of fashion. She is a member of GRACMON (Research Group in Art History and Contemporary Design), University of Barcelona. She is the author of diverse scientific papers on this subject, has participated in several Spanish and international conferences and has published ground-breaking studies on the history of both Spanish and Catalan fashion. She is currently working as a university lecturer and as an adviser in museums.