Book of the Year award for study of Paris fashion and its international diffusion during the Nazi Occupation

Titled Paris Fashion and World War Two: Global Diffusion and Nazi Control, the book by Professor Lou Taylor and Dr Marie McLoughlin has received the Association of Dress Historians' Book of the Year Award 2021.

As war loomed in the late 1930s, haute couture Paris fashion was a key area of cultural and economic importance in France and led international style. From 1940-1944, with the permission of the Nazi authorities, one hundred salons stayed open during the Occupation selling extravagant designs for clothes and hats mostly to French women in wealthy collaborating circles. In the post war period this fact was buried and replaced with a convenient myth that the salons closed down.

Dr Marie McLoughlin

Professor Taylor and Dr McLoughlin's book tells a different story, drawing on testimony from leading international dress historians and curators to argue that in fact, despite Nazi imposed restrictions, Paris retained its position as Queen of Fashion. Their book reveals for the first time overseas fashion trade links out of Occupied France to Sweden, Brazil, Portugal, Denmark and Switzerland and as well as taking readers inside the salons of renowned couturiers such as Edward Molyneux and Robert Piguet, and into French Vogue and luxury silk production in Lyon.

This book examines the war time activities - finally unsuccessful - of Britain and America to wrest the leadership of world fashion away from Paris, each for reasons of national cultural and economic status.

By comparing extravagant Paris Occupation styles to the rationed Austerity fashions of the UK and USA, and to the fearful clothing shortages across all Nazi occupied countries, the book reveals a profound tension between the wartime world of luxury Paris fashion and the impoverished, stressful, everyday realities of life, in Britain and across war-torn Europe.

The fate of European Jews working in leading positions as designers, makers and retailers - as a consequence of Nazi imposed antisemitic legislation - is also detailed.

Professor Emerita Lou Taylor from the School of Humanities and Social Science at University of Brighton, and Dr Marie McLoughlin – Senior Lecturer in the university's School of Art and Media - said: “We are delighted and proud to receive this award from the Association of Dress Historians, most especially because it comes from our fellow dress historians.”

Suzanne Rowland, Chair of the Awards Sub-committee at the Association of Dress Historians, said: “This book addresses a paucity in dress history scholarship by connecting Paris haute couture to international haute couture during the Second World War. We were impressed by the range of social contexts which challenge previous scholarship. Exemplary research shows how Paris couture was disseminated during the war and highlights the work of non-Parisian couturiers. Richly illustrated throughout, the book is a very welcome contribution to dress history.”

Paris Fashion and World War Two: Global Diffusion and Nazi Control is published by Bloomsbury.