'From Paris to Providence: Fashion, Art, and The Tirocchi Dressmakers Shop, 1915-1947'

March 8 - 15, 2001

[Art Reviews]

Treasure trove

The Tirocchis' fabulous fashions

by Bill Rodriguez

French, "Dress," ca. 1926.

The Victorian house at 514 Broadway in Providence is intriguingly ornate, but when RISD curators stepped into the place in 1989, they had no idea they were walking into a treasure trove. Opening rooms that had been closed for 42 years, they were suddenly like archaeologists who had stumbled into the tomb of Tutankhamen and its unexpected riches. Garments and opulent textiles from the first half of the century were preserved, a period of dress design as imaginative as the history of the time was tumultuous.
From 1915 to 1947, the building had housed A. & L. Tirocchi Gowns, dressmakers to the wealthy and fashionable of the city. Now after more than 10 years of poring over the discoveries, the Rhode Island School of Design is presenting From Paris to Providence: Fashion, Art, and The Tirocchi Dressmakers Shop, 1915-1947, an elaborate exhibition showing off the finds and explaining their significance.
Displayed are some three dozen dresses on mannequins, as well as photographs, ledgers, and correspondence. It all assembles into a comprehensive picture of the fascinating business run by Italian immigrant sisters Anna and Laura Tirocchi. The breadth and completeness of the fashion industry documentation is unique in the country. A thick catalogue contains photographs and essays that detail the significance of this period, when art merged with fashion and modernist artists utilized fashion as an alternative canvas. An elaborate Web site (tirocchi.stg.brown.edu/) draws from the material and emphasizes such aspects as the lives of the shop workers. (When one of them got engaged, the workers would contribute dressmaking time while the Tirocchis donated the wedding gown material.)
Many of the textiles on display, stretched out behind the mannequins, are beautiful enough to be framed on their own as art, from rich brocades to simple but lush silk-satin and chiffon. Similarly, sometimes the texture of the apparel is eye-catching enough to not need fancy detailing, as with a striking emerald green silk coat that simulates the curly texture of Persian lamb through intricate quilting.
The Tirocchis and their customers were fortunate to live in a time when technology as well as art made more possible. The punch-card-programmed Jacquard loom had been in use for over a century when the dressmaking shop opened, but in the machine's ability to interweave intricate patterns was never utilized to more complex effects than in the shop's period. An advance on that technology, we learn, was the Leavers lace machine, which allowed such complicated overprinting as that of a poppy and leaf design in rayon that is on display. The floral pattern is overlaid with alternating light and dark bars, as though light and shadow are falling on the material. In a similar example, the exhibition catalogue cover shows actual-size silk and metal thread fabric, with dark and light Cubist patterns taking turns at being each other's foreground and background.
Such examples of wearable art are the most impressive aspect of the show, historically as well as visually. The society women who went to the Tirocchi sisters wanted not just to have hand-made couture but to be au courant. Fortunately, both the fine arts and the decorative arts of the time were sipping from the same cultural fountain.
There are examples of this at every turn in the RISD show. A knitted overblouse made in 1926 at first looks like it has an abstract geometric pattern, but closer examination reveals that the design is composed of skyscrapers and smoke-stack-sprouting factories, like the interlocking urban angles of a Lyonel Feininger painting. The energetic style of Futurism clearly was behind the red swirls patterning a silk-velvet evening coat, observes Susan Hay, RISD curator of costumes and textiles and curator of the exhibition, in her catalogue essay.
Fashion designers of the period had their eyes alert for exoticism from various sources. A silk and velvet coat attributed to designer Paul Poiret drips jewel-encrusted Persian designs over cloth that has tiny metal nubbles texturing a silvery sheen. After the King Tut discovery in 1922, Egyptian motifs were not limited to hieroglyphics, as we see in some of the accessories on display as well as the dresses.
Ever since French Impressionism got fascinated with Japan, Japanese-inspired designs have gotten into decorative art as well as paintings. The beadwork on a rose-colored silk dress is attributed to this influence, with clusters of beads cascading like weeping willows or fountains. Flowing bead fringes often complemented the draping and folding that gave visual interest to the otherwise shapeless tubular dresses and chemises of the Roaring '20s.
The beadwork on display here is impressive for being so labor-intensive as well as for its intricate designs. Sweeping curves are often used to make up for the straight verticals of flapper dresses. Sometimes, though, Art Deco angles and simple color contrasts are used to parallel the straight lines. The most dramatic example is a beaded and sequined dress we are told was inspired by the textiles of a German manufacturer. Black and coral tube beads encircle the waist in zigzag rows, and everywhere else angular designs and patterns sparkle like geometry lessons under a spinning disco ball.
Get an eyeful of the RISD exhibition, which is being held through April 8, and you can discover your own favorites.

"A Day with the Tirocchi Sisters," a free, public symposium and walking tour, will take place on Saturday, March 10 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Bell Street Chapel, 5 Bell Street, Providence. At 9:45 a.m., Susan Hay and Madelyn Shaw, curators of costume and textiles at the RISD Museum, and Pamela Parmal from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts will discuss "The Tirocchi Sisters: Celebrating Their Lives and Times." At 11:30 a.m., history and women's studies professors Susan Porter Benson (UConn), Kate Dunnigan (CCRI), and Sharon Hartman Strom (URI) will present "The Tirocchi Shop and Women's Issues." At 2:30 p.m., history and American studies professors John Briggs (Syracuse University), Judith E. Smith (UMass, Boston), and the Reverend Robert Hayman (Providence College) will discuss "The Tirocchi Shop and the Italian American Community." At 4 p.m., architectural historian Wm McKenzie (Mack) Woodward will lead a walking tour of the Tirocchi Sisters' Broadway neighborhood. Admission is free. Call 454-6505.