(Page 1 of 2) Print Version
Curated by Tilly Laskey, curator of Maine Historical Society (MHS) with support from Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. and Jamie Rice, Deputy Director, MHS. Installed at Maine Historical Society's Earle G. Shettleworth Gallery May 25 to September 24, 2022. Images courtesy of Maine Historical Society and the Portland Museum of Art.
Exhibit Navigation: Page 1 Paris couture in Maine ; Page 2 Burrage sisters and their fashion legacy
William Waters, Florence Bixby, Mildred and Madeleine Burrage in Dresden, 1968
Mildred and Madeline Burrage in matching floral dresses.
Item Contributed by
Maine Historical Society
Cosmopolitan Stylings
Sisters Mildred and Madeleine Burrage were renowned artists and world travelers. Trips to Europe, Mexico and Guatemala inspired their artwork, and solidified their shared passions for cosmopolitan and stylish attire.
Mildred Giddings Burrage (1890-1983) studied and worked as an artist in France intermittently from 1909 to 1914 and became interested in haute couture. Recounting her Parisian activities in letters home to family in Maine, Mildred admitted in 1911, "It seems as if I only write about clothes."
Mildred Burrage's papers at Maine Historical Society include original drawings from Paris designers dating from 1928 to 1936, demonstrating her lifelong interest in fashion. Madeleine Burrage's (1891-1976) jewelry designs and scrapbooks, also in Mildred's papers, indicate popular fashion inspired her, too.
High fashion meets Yankee thrift
Paris was—and remains—the fashion capital of the world. Mildred Burrage began visiting France as an art student in 1909, during La Belle Époque (1890-1914) when inventions like automobiles and motion pictures accompanied a rise of haute couture Parisian fashion design houses.
Burrage's letters from France demonstrate equal amounts of Yankee thrift and flair for fashion. In 1909, Mildred and her fellow art students visited a market where she purchased a Panama hat, "that at home would have cost at least $20" noting she bought it "because it is just my style & I can wear it till I am a hundred & pass it on from generation to generation. Think of a Panama for $1.25!" Mildred wrote pages upon pages justifying the purchase of two designer dresses, noting, "Some people don't like Liberty, but I do, for I think they are just exactly my style."
Mildred sent Paris fashion insights to Maine, saying in 1909, "Waists are going to be big again. We saw one such dress—dull green satin, with an embroidered front coming way down in a point over the stomach—short sleeves." And offered "If you can plan winter hats now, I can bring you home things."
Mildred Burrage studied art in Giverny, France before World War I. On a trip to Versailles in July 1909, she made sketches of her fellow art students and people in the crowd to accompany her letter home. Burrage's attention to color, architectural details, and clothing styles developed in France became lifelong themes, shown by this excerpt:
Think of fountains with rainbows in the sunlight and blue sky and fresh green of all the trees and the white dresses of the women and behind it all that enormous pink and grey palace. The crowd had such fun…there were Breton women in their white caps and colored aprons and there were soldiers and little boys and old gentlemen, & nice old peasant ladies with white caps being shown the sights by their sons.
Paris couture in Maine
Before print catalogs and websites globalized fashion, Paris designers sent drawings to customers around the world to inform them of the upcoming season’s style and fabric trends. Called "line sheets," the drawings are sales tools that designers used to present fashion products to consumers. Typically, fashion line sheets included images, descriptions, fabric swatches, color and size options, and prices for easy ordering.
Line sheets dating from 1928 to 1936 were among Mildred Burrage's possessions when her archives arrived at MHS. Designers include Maison Christiane of Paris and Nice, and Lucile of Paris. The line sheets were originally sent to "Mrs. Huntington"—probably Elizabeth Dodge Huntington—a summer resident of Prouts Neck. A note with the drawings suggested the Burrages received them "third-hand" as Mrs. Huntington passed the line sheets first to Lillian Sylvester, and asked her to deliver them to the Burrages.
During World War II, the influence of Paris fashion decreased in Maine as American fashion designers came into their own, spurred by wartime shortages, and by the more casual United States lifestyle.
Click on the images below to learn more about the fashions in the line sheet drawings.
Exhibition continues on Page 2 Burrage sisters and their fashion legacy
Friendly URL: https://www.mainememory.net/exhibits/cosmopolitan_stylings
