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Travel Piece by Ida Nasatir
Letter from Paris, by Ida Nasatir, March
16, 1951
March 16, 1951—Ida Nasatir, "A
Letter from Paris," Southwestern Jewish Press, page
8: Dear Julia and Mac: Not too long ago I wrote to tell you how La Belle
France dresses. (A subject dear to all feminine hearts). Since then I made the
acquaintance of one of the prominent "creators" of fashions, and I
must tell you of the pain with which an outstanding model is
"born." The creators of gowns are called modelists and usually
they are women: sometimes they are men. A modelist is a big establishment is
given her own room and her own staff of seamstresses and her midinettes, and she
is allowed to draw on the stock room for any material she needs. No
superior power stands over her and says, "Make that shirt shorter!" or
"That color is too light." If such a thing was said to her the
modelist would be likely to quit her job on the spot, for most of them are as
temperamental as any other creative artist. Sometimes a modelist, like a poet,
will go for days, without doing any work to speak of. Then one night will come
the great idea. She is seized with the divine fire of inspiration,
followed by fervor of creation. Next morning, she hastens to her workroom,
gathers her little staff around her and briefly explains her idea. Great bolts
of material are brought to her. The door is locked and the scissors and pins
called into play. For hours the modelist will stand before her mannequin hanging
silks and crepes on her, ruthlessly slicing with her scissors, fastening and
unfastening hundreds of steel pins. Evenually she is satisfied. The staff
gathers round and comments with awe or rhapsody, according to temperament. A
final touch is given here and there. A pin is taken out—stuck in again. A fold
is straightened; the waistline lowered the merest fraction of an inch. Voila!
"Go,m" says the modelist to her smallest midinette, "so say
to the patron to mount!" The head of the house comes at once. It is likely
that he will take one look at the creation and then turn to the modelist, his
arms outstretched. Ma petite! Ma chere petite! he will sob, kissing her
tenderly on both cheeks. "It is a miracle! You are a genius! You are the
greatest desgner in Paris! It will be a sensation. I am overwhelmed. See—I
weep!" And he keeps his promise. If it is in wintertime the gown will be a
summer one. If it is in spring or summer the creation will be a winter one. My
friend the creator tells me it is the tiny subtle alterations which only the
expert can recognize, but which nevertheless make the whole creation look
different. She further said that no mother goes through more severe pains with
her infant than she does with her creation. Think about this girls, the
next time you buy your Jacques Fath or Christian Dior gown! Fondly, Ida Nasatir