Driving helmets, Sonia Delaunay

• Sonia Delaunay

• Gift of Madame Annette Jean Coutrot
• 1924 - 1928
• Fabric embroidered with coloured wool; lining: damask rayon, burgundy crepe, green fabric and ivory silk pongee; fabric-covered snap fasteners and metal buttons
• GAL1971.24.3ABCD
• Palais Galliera, musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris

Couturiers and artists worked together more closely during the 1920s. Already, in 1913, Sonia Delaunay had created her first 'simultaneous' dress, an assemblage of fabrics using geometrical shapes and contrasting colours.
Composition, colour and cut were intimately linked here. Delaunay opened her workshop at 19 Boulevard Malesherbes in Paris and registered the trademark 'Simultané' in 1925. At the International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts of the same year she presented garments and accessories with Jacques Heim in her 'boutique simultanée' on the Alexandre III bridge. The remarkable set of monochrome driving helmets on display testifies to her detailed exploration of colour.
The museum possesses a number of accessories designed by Sonia Delaunay, among them a 1928 grey-brown silk reps handbag (GAL1998.87.6) and a silk muslin printed stole from the same year (GAL1998.87.4).

Notice's author : Marie-Laure Gutton