In 2019, EYE Filmmuseum received a collection of nitrate films. Among these, there were four reels of wonderfully stencilled fashion compilations from the 1910s and 1920s with meticulous details and amazingly vibrant colours. Over the past two years, Mode uit Parijs 2 and Parijsche Mode No. 25 have screened at Il Cinema Ritrovato. This year sees the premiere of Mode uit Parijs 1, yet another compilation of Parisian fashions from 1923-1925, seemingly collated to bring together different items all featuring feathers.
The first section contains images from La Mode à Paris, filmed in the summer of 1923 at Maison Doucet according to a copyright document at the Pathé Gaumont Archives. Interestingly, the footage combines a dynamic fashion show with more static images from the fitting rooms.
In another segment, researcher Marketa Uhrilova was able to identify two dresses: the Blanche Lebouvier dress with the bird of paradise was displayed in the 1925 Bal de la Couture in Paris. A second dress, shown by the model with the garçonne hairstyle, matches some shots found in a film produced by Alexandre Nalpas for his series Le Film des Elégances Parisiennes (sometimes also: Elégances Parisiennes). This series, launched in 1923, was meant to create fashion featurettes and non-narrative cinemagazine items. The ambition was to produce high-end fashion films that would act as an official representation of Parisian fashions.
The other segments remain unidentified, however Lemonnier hats designed by Jeanne Le Monnier deserve a special mention.
The stencil-coloured nitrate print is directly scanned, followed by a digital cleanup, which requires a lot of human attention and control, considering all the glitter and sparkles on the dresses. Digital restoration allows handling of each colour individually during grading while the black-and-white base remains neutral.

Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi