Mainbocher [né Main Rousseau Bocher] (1890–1976), costume designer. Celebrated Chicago‐born designer of high fashion, he studied not only art, but also voice and piano in leading world cultural centers before embarking on his theatrical career in Paris. Mainbocher almost never designed all the costumes for a show, merely those for its star, such as Mary Martin in One Touch of Venus and The Sound of Music, Ruth Gordon in Over 21, Tallulah Bankhead in Private Lives, Ethel Merman in Call Me Madam, Katharine Cornell in The Prescott Proposals, Rosalind Russell in Wonderful Town, and Lynn Fontanne in The Great Sebastians.
(mĕn'bōshā') (Main Rousseau Bocher), 1891–1976, American fashion designer, b. Chicago. He was known for his expensive, elegant evening clothes; cardigan sweaters with jeweled buttons; and high-waisted, long, and lacy or transparent ball gowns. He opened his Paris house of couture in 1929 and his New York house in 1939. He designed war uniforms for the WAVES and SPARS and made costume designs for stage productions. He introduced the strapless evening gown, and made the wedding dress for the Duchess of Windsor. His signature fashion designs included pearl chokers and short, white gloves.
Born: Main Rousseau Bocher in Chicago, Illinois, 24 October 1890; adopted name Mainbocher, circa 1929.
Education: Studied at the Lewis Institute, Chicago, 1907; Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, 1908-09, and at the Art Students' League, New York, 1909-11; attended University of Chicago, 1911, and Königliche Kunstgewerbemuseum, Munich, 1911-12; studied painting with E. A. Taylor, Paris, 1913-14.
Military Service: American Ambulance Corps, and Intelligence Corps, Paris, 1917-18.
Career: Lithographer, part-time, New York, 1909-11; sketch artist for clothing manufacturer E.L. Mayer, New York, 1914-17; illustrator, Harper's Bazaar, Paris, 1917-21; fashion correspondent, then editor, French Vogue, 1922-29; established couturier firm, Paris, 1930-39, and New York, 1939-71; also designed stage costumes, from 1932, and uniforms for American WAVES (U.S. Navy), 1942; American Girl Scouts, 1946; American Red Cross, 1948; U.S. Women's Marine Corps, 1951.
Exhibitions:Fashion on Stage: Couture for the Broadway Theater, 1910-55, New York, 1999.
Collections: Mainbocher sketchbooks, Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Died: 27 December 1976.
The snob appeal of patronizing an American couturier with a French sounding name—extremely successful in Paris for a decade before his arrival in the United States—appealed to the socially élite trade in 1940 New York. No less appealing was the fact that Mainbocher had designed the Duchess of Windsor's trousseau upon her marriage in 1937. In 1930, after several years as editor of FrenchVogue, Mainbocher suddenly decided to channel his artistic sensibilities into the establishment of a couture salon in Paris. Editorial experience enabled him to sense what would become fashionable and to package himself as an exclusive designer to the wealthy and the titled.
From the start, Mainbocher specialized in simple, conservative, elegant, and extremely expensive fashions, the luxury of cut, materials, and workmanship that could only be recognized by those in the know. Most importantly, the clothes, exquisitely finished inside and out, gave self-confidence to the women who wore them.
Mainbocher considered his contemporary Chanel too plebeian, and Schiaparelli too avant-garde. Instead, he admired Vionnet and borrowed her bias-cut technique for his own simple slip evening dresses in the 1930s. Twenty years later, a very similar slip design was employed by Mainbocher, produced in a signature elegant silk velvet fabric. From Augustabernard, another 1920s French dress designer, Mainbocher was inspired not only to form his name, but to use godets in skirts, and shoulder bows to catch the folds of draped bodices. Frequent Mainbocher suit treatments in the 1930s included short capelet effects or dropped shoulders widening into full sleeves. The designer knew his clientéle personally and designed for the lives they led, specializing in evening clothes. For resort wear he ventured into a mix-and-match ensemble consisting of matching top, skirt, bathing suit, and hat. Slim, demure black wool dresses for daytime would sport white chiffon interest at the throat.
While Mainbocher did use some Japanese-like kimonos as eveningwear during this period, his hallmark was nonaggressive, not exaggerated or period dressing. A touch of labor-intensive luxury would be bestowed by all-over sequins on an evening jacket or on a bare top worn discreetly under a jacket. The grayish-blue, "Wallis blue," of the Duchess of Windsor's wedding dress, as well as the long, fluid crêpe dress itself, was widely copied. The simple, conservative elegance of Mainbocher's style, feminine but not fussy, perfectly suited the slim, severe good looks of the Duchess and wealthy women like her. Additionally, she was honoring a fellow American.
In 1934 Mainbocher introduced the boned strapless bodice, and before the war forced him to leave Paris, a waist cincher, forming tiny waisted, pleated and skirted dresses that presaged Dior's postwar New Look. Mainbocher's arrival in New York coincided perfectly with the city élite's love for French couture, for though he epitomized it, he satisfied their patriotism because he was actually an American. Society matrons such as C.Z. Guest and the Vanderbilts, and stage actresses such as Mary Martin, avidly patronized this "most expensive custom dressmaker" who made women look and feel exquisitely well-bred.
Accedance to wartime economies resulted in Mainbocher's short evening dresses, and versatile cashmere sweaters—beaded, lined in silk, and closed by jeweled buttons—designed to keep women warm in their bare evening gowns. Another practical wartime innovation, the "glamor belt," an apron-like, sequined or bead-encrusted accessory, could be added to embellish any plain costume. Practically gratis, Mainbocher designed uniforms for the U.S. Women's Marine Corps, the WAVES (Navy), the American Red Cross, and the Girl Scouts.
As the years progressed, Mainbocher continued to design exclusively on a made-to-order basis, refusing to license his name. La Galerie, a department in his salon, did produce clothes in standard sizes, a compromise for busy women without time for lengthy fittings. The reverse snobbery of the humble pastel gingham or cotton piqué used for fancy dresses appealed to Mainbocher's clientéle, as did refined tweed suits with subtle dressmaker touches such as curved bands or fabric appliqués, worn with coordinating bare-armed blouses. A Mainbocher standby was the little black "nothing" sheath dress.
By the 1950s and 1960s, old guard Mainbocher customers enjoyed wearing impeccably made classic coats and suits of wool, often fur-lined, in the midst of nouveau-riche ostentation. The typical ladylike daytime Mainbocher look was accessorized by a plain velvet bow in the hair instead of a hat, a choker of several strands of real pearls, white gloves, and plain pumps with matching handbag. The integrity of luxurious fabrics, intricate cut, quality workmanship and materials, elegance and classicism, were cherished and worn for years by Mainbocher's upper crust customers.
Publications
On Mainbocher:
Books
Levin, Phyllis Lee, The Wheels of Fashion, New York, 1965.
Lee, Sarah Tomerlin, editor, American Fashion: The Life and Lines of Adrian, Mainbocher, McCardell, Norell, and Trigére, New York, 1975, 1987.
Milbank, Caroline Rennolds, Couture: The Great Designers, NewYork, 1985.
——, New York Fashion: The Evolution of American Style, NewYork, 1989.
Stegemeyer, Anne, Who's Who in Fashion, Third Edition, New York,1996.
Articles
"Mainbocher," in Current Biography, February 1942.
"Mainbocher," special monograph issue of Harper's Bazaar, July 1967.
"Mainbocher: Great Gentleman of Fashion," in Harper's Bazaar, June 1971.
"Mainbocher," [obituary], in the Times (London), 5 January 1977.
"The Career of Mainbocher Discussed," in the Times, 14 January 1977.
Lawford, Valentine, "A Look Back in Fashion," in Architectural Digest (Los Angeles), September 1988.
Cunningham, Bill, "An Elegant Blast From the Past," in the New York Times, 24 September 2000.
In 1929, he established his own fashion house, designing expensive, elegant haute
couturedresses and gowns for an exclusive
clientele, and charging them for the privilege of viewing his collections. He designed much of the Duchess of Windsor's wardrobe,
naming a color, Wallis blue, for her, and created the first strapless evening gown.
In 1939 , he relocated his business to New York on 57th Street
next to Tiffany's, and continued to design for generations of discerning women of
means like Gloria Vanderbilt through the 1960s.
After he achieved fame for dressing some of the world's most famous women, Mainbocher was commissioned to design the costumes
for Ethel Merman in the 1950 Broadway musical
Call Me Madam. Merman recounts in her memoirs that she took her mother to her first
fitting for her costumes. Mainbocher would not permit Merman's mother in the fitting area saying he did not allow outside persons
in the areas where he created. When Merman inquired why he would not allow her mother when he allowed another old woman in the
room, Mainbocher replied, "But that is my mother."
Recently, Mainbocher and twenty-three other American fashion designers were honored with bronze plaques on New York City's
"Fashion Walk of Fame" in the legendary garment district.
Mainbocher was also the designer of the clothes worn by Mary Martin in the Broadway production of The Sound of Music, and for
Lauren Bacall in Applause. Mainbocher was located at 609 Fifth Avenue prior to his retiring and closing his house.
