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paulrennie · 5 months

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Things I Like • Old Woven Labels • France • 1930s

Introduction

I recently found a roll of unused hat label ribbon from France. These are labels, manufactured as woven ribbon to be cut and sewn into clothes. These hat, or beret, labels were designed in the 1930s when the fashion for sports headgear was all the rage. These labels have a lovely square format and are bigger than the usual shirt, or jacket label. I had to have them.

The back of the label with its threads is almost as lovely as the front, but in a completely different way.

Here's a text I wrote last year about the wonderful world of old labels...

Print ephemera is usually described in relation to the print-economy…but there are lots of other areas were modern consumer culture and its attendant systems of production produce minor masterpieces of design. Amongst these has been the modern fashion system with its focus on the relentless newness and continuous change.

The fashion label is now understood in relation to international branding, but the label itself if a relatively recent invention. The characteristics of the clothing label, developing typography as a form of distinctive image or sign, are those of modern graphic design in miniature, and in woven silk.

I’d hardly thought of this until, about 30 years ago now (c1995), I saw advertised in the London evening newspaper, The Standard, a picture of a diamond-shaped hat label. This had been chosen to illustrate a sale at Sotheby’s of French textile sample books. I wasn’t interested in the textile samples, but I could see that the typographic experimentation of these labels might be interesting. I made a note to view the sale…

The sale comprised a large quantity of sample ledgers removed from a factory or warehouse that itemised the production of different fabrics and patterns. In amongst it all, there were three lots of label samples. The albums of labels were lovely, and I resolved to buy them…

French Woven-Silk Clothing Labels

The French company, Les Ateliers Peyrache, established in Saint-Didier-en-Velay, in the Haute Loire, have been designers and manufacturers of woven labels and ribbons for over six generations. The sample albums seem to have been assembled to provide the Peyrache sales reps with material to show potential clients – tailors, dress-makers and shop owners etc.

In the UK, many people will be familiar with the school name-tapes produced by Cash’s of Coventry. These ribbons were woven with a name and sewn into the various garments associated with school uniform etc. The name tapes are typographically standard, but they are produced by a simple machine. The woven labels are produced in a similar way, as ribbons, but with a wider range of typographic expression that aligns with the French fashion system and the accelerating dynamism of modern life in the period after WW1.

French Fashion

The modern fashion system, as we understand it, is a relatively recent phenomenon. For most of history, clothes have been made locally and by hand. In France, the long history of aristocratic patronage has supported the technical development of workshop skills in hand-sewing.

The atelier system of couture tailoring remains the bench-mark of luxury manufacturing, and is identified as an exemplar of French savoir-faire. In provincial towns and cities, tailors and seamstresses made clothes to order for their local clients. Clothing remained relatively expensive until the advent of mass production after WW1. Good quality hand-made clothes were looked after, and passed down. Practically everything was used until worn out. In this context, the need for woven labels, and branding, hardly registered.

The emerging leisure economy of the 1920s was expressed, in fashion terms, through an interest in the comfortable and dynamic traditions of English military and sports clothing. This was exemplified, in French eyes at least, by the fashion sense of Edward, Prince of Wales. The tweed cap was replaced, in France, by the beret which became associated with a range of outdoor activities including, tennis, golf, cycling, motoring, mountain climbing and skiing…This was in addition to the beret’s established association with creative and bohemian types.

The sample books were part of the sales material shown to potential customers and to encourage them to establish their own personal brand as a part of the local economy of style and production.

The French sports clothing brand, Lacoste, was founded in the late 1920s by the tennis champion Réné Lacoste, nicknamed the crocodile and part of the famous four musketeers who dominated tennis during the 1920s and 1930s. Lacoste is credited with developing the concept of modern sports clothing for tennis and of beginning the elaboration of a country-club style that combined comfort and dynamism. The Lacoste brand is nowadays famous for its classic polo shirts.

Lacoste wasn’t the first person to be attracted to the British traditions of sports tailoring. The evolution of modern clothing as combining comfort and style, whilst facilitating movement has been continuous trend throughout and to the present interest in athleisure. In the 1930s, the English style of comfortable and relaxed sports clothing was promoted by Edward, Prince of Wales. In the US, the style developed into the relaxed formality of the country-club style clothing.

In Germany and before WW1, the poster artist Ludwig Hohlwein, had produced designs for the Munich based sports tailor, Hermann Scherrer. Hohlwein’s designs have a powerfully simplified graphic style deriving from Japanese woodblock prints, and in which pattern is simply dropped into the 2D shape of coat or trousers. Hohlwein’s poster designs for Scherrer were also used as labels for inclusion in the clothes.

French Typography

In addition to the formal connections between the labels and the traditions of modern graphic presentation, and to the wider cultural significance of the French fashion system and the modern leisure economy, the labels also speak of an expanded understanding of typographic tradition and expression, beyond letterpress printing. The labels are exactly the kinds of graphic material that might have been included in the French graphic periodical, Arts et Métiers Graphiques.

Charles Peignot founded the journal in 1927 to support and encourage the development of graphic design in relation to the French luxury market. Peignot was the director of the type foundry Deberny + Peignot, and worked with the designer, AM Cassandre and with the typographer, Maximilien Vox.

The personalities clustered around Arts et Metiers conceptualised an iteration of the modern spectacular that was bigger, bolder and more dynamic that had previously been the case. The integration of art, design and architecture into the expression of dynamic modernity was greatly expanded by inclusion of the fashion and retail systems, in France at least, driving the luxurious everyday. The sophistication and graphic language of the new mise-en-page was described by Alfred Tolmer in 1931. The typographic clothing labels, shown here, are a small part of a bigger story of a sophisticated and exciting dynamism associated with machine-age modernity, in its French form.

These clothing labels provide a refreshing and exciting example of typographic variety of the modern style beyond the present ubiquitous choice of sans typefaces.

I'm always on the look-out for nice labels.

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vladfromparis-blog · 5 years

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Full interview of Timothée and Armie : Le Figaro 02.28.18 Translation (approximative by me)

-INTERVIEW - In competition for four Oscars, Luca Guadagnino's film will be released this Wednesday. His director has breathed his sensuality and unprecedented modesty, revealing the talent of the actor of 22 years and resurrecting the career of Armie Hammer. Le Figaro met the two actors for a facetious discussion.

-No respite for the Call me by your name team. After a week spent between Los Angeles and Rome, they landed mid-January in Paris to promote the film from the cult novel by André Aciman Later or never. This jewel of tenderness and humanity signed by Luca Guadagnino, the director of Amore and A bigger splash tells the awakening of the desire between two young men in Italy of the 80s and is like Tom Thumb at the Oscars, with 4 appointments. The idyll is in the running, on March 4, the statuette of the best film and the best actor for his star and revelation, Timothée Chalamet. At 22, the Franco-American actor, seen in Homeland and Lady Bird who also released Wednesday in theaters, is the youngest actor to compete in this category since 1939! Call me by your name also marks Armie Hammer's return to the stage. Noticed in 2010 in The social network by David Fincher, the 31-year-old American has also suffered several setbacks at the box office, with Lone Ranger, birth of a hero and very special agents: Code U.N.C.L.E.

-Unveiled at the Sundance Festival in January 2017, Call me by your name has offered its stars an incessant world tour. Despite fatigue and jet lag, no weariness was visible to the accomplice duo who responded with enthusiasm and jocularity to our questions.

- LE FIGARO - Call me by your name took more than eight years to mount. Initially the adaptation of Andre Aciman's novel was to be brought to the screen by James Ivory. Then producer, Luca Guadagnino was propelled coscenarist and director. When did you join the adventure?

-TIMOTHEE CHALAMET - I met Luca when I was 17 in 2013. The only reason I got this appointment when I had no experience was that I had the same agent as Tilda Swinton with whom Luca had just turned A bigger splash (laughs). At the time, there was no scenario yet. I borrowed André Aciman's novel from the library of my university. I discovered a rare role for an actor of my age. Elio is an authentic and sincere description of the obsession that can accompany the awakening to sensuality. There was the added complexity of playing a contradictory character and very intellectual.

-ARMIE HAMMER - I met Luca seven or eight years ago. He liked The social network and came to Los Angeles to meet me. We had a fabulous 4:30 hours conversation about art, cinema, philosophy, literature. I said to myself: "I hit the nail, I had the role". Then no more news ... Until two years ago. I wanted to say yes immediately. My agent was worried and encouraged me to read the script: but even with a love scene with a peach, I was going!

-Do you have much in common with your characters?

-AH - Very much. Oliver is good at giving the change, to make him feel comfortable, to have confidence in him, when he does not feel that way at all. I am like that too. Oliver is not well in his skin because he can not live as he wishes: only Elio manages to break through his defenses.

- TC - This Italian summer reminded me of my holidays in France in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in the family of my father in Haute-Loire. In small European cities there is a different awareness of time: we have breakfast, we discuss, we read newspapers, we bask in the sun ...

- How did you prepare for your roles?

-TC - With Luca, we tried to stay close and faithful to the book. I have also been inspired by other films of transition to adulthood and awakening to sexuality, such as Y tu mama tambien by Alfonso Cuaron and La vie d'Adèle by Abdellatif Kechiche.( Blue is the warmest colour is the english tittle)

AH- The book portrays Elio's point of view which is not very reliable (laughs). It is enough for Oliver to say hello to him so that Elio finds cala fantasy. Conversely, if Olivier leaves without saying a word it's a bastard. Researchers gave me an idea of what it is like to be gay and Jewish in the 80s in the United States on the East Coast.

- What were your most delicate scenes to shoot?

- AH- The dance scene. Oliver had to let go, get lost in space and time. This is exactly the antithesis of who I am. Swinging in front of 75 extras and technicians without music is the most uncomfortable thing I've ever done, much more than sex scenes!

- TC - The most pointed was the piano scenes because in the book Elio is a little genius. I arrived in Italy a month and a half before shooting started. I am often asked about the scenes of love, Luca filmed them with a lot of delicacy. I never had to fear that they were opportunists or voyeurs.

-Did call me by your name change your outlook on life?

- AH - In this film, there is absolutely no exposure. At no point does Luca Guadagnino tell you what these characters feel. Everyone can identify themselves. During our existence, we will go through bitter moments and milder moments. The accumulation of these moments makes what makes life so precious. Do not throw away the good for fear of the bad.

- TC - I think back to Michael Stuhlbag's monologue playing Elio's father. Listening to him declaim it's like I heard a little voice say to me, "Timmy, hunt exhilarating experiences. Be sad if they do not succeed but do not repress what you feel. If one hurts and one suffers, it suffers in the right way. To suffer in the wrong way is to suffer by hating oneself.

- ... and your career?

- TC - Call Me By Your Name is a dream come true. I got this role when I left school. How lucky to find such a fresh, demanding project with which the public reacts! When I called Call me by your name, nobody knew me. I did not have a career to risk unlike Armie ...

-AH- You mean my tramp career?

-Call me by your name was presented in January 2017 at Sundance where he received an enthusiastic actor, then in February 2017 at the Berlin festival. Now you are promoting in Europe and are in the running for four Oscars. How did you live these past months, out of the ordinary?

-TC- I do not feel absolutely jaded. I benefit every moment. Go to the four corners of the world to interact with the spectators is magic. When I was shooting with him Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, Matthew McConaughey told me something very fair: "A movie is not a sprint but a marathon. There are catches, gambling bets that do not work. We must not fight the guilt but start over and continue. Playing with Armie, seeing how he let himself be guided by his instinct but also how he approached the press events, the evenings were very instructive. It was enough for me to look at him, Luca or Daniel Kaluuya of Get out who also had an extraordinary year to know how to do it.

AH - I am so happy that Timothy lives this great moment of recognition. There has not been such a catchy performance, so subtle from a young actor for 70 years!

-TC - After March 4th, it may be time to take a little vacation. Armie and his wife invited me to come to the Cayman Islands where he grew up! (Laughs).

#timothée chalamet #armie hammer #timothee chalamet #Call Me By Your Name #le figaro

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