Ida Nasatir writings   List of honorees         Louis Rose Society         Jewishsightseeing home

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