Pierre Bulloz - Parisian Fashion Designer - 1921
Blue serge dress, sash of heavy black brocaded tissue; the skirt forms a tunic in the back and pointed panels at the sides.
Afternoon coat of black satin combined with crepe marocain; the burnous collar ends in long silk tassels and sides of the coat effect a pointed movement longer than the rest of the garment.
Bulloz is too well known everywhere to need any praise as a couturier, but as an artist, he shows a life of tremendous activity coupled with inexhaustible creative power.
The artistic temperament, combined with keen business faculties, is too rare a thing to be passed over lightly! In it, lies the secret of Bulloz's success in every branch of the art he has undertaken.
For he studied art as an artist, painting long before establishing himself in a business capacity; his love of line and color is manifest in all his creations and years spent in studying the human form gives a rare sense of harmony and proportion to his models.
One of Monsieur Bulloz's most important secrets lies in making each model personal to the wearer; when a customer views the collection, Bulloz studies the lady, busily talking all the while, and produces sketches especially adapting the models to the figure, age and requirements of the client; that is the way to make and keep the enormous Parisian and cosmopolitan clientèle that is his by right of taste and chic.
Bulloz’s Italian origin has brought him the patronage of all the smartest women of that country, including that of the Queen of Italy herself.
An interesting side of the couturier's art lies in stage decoration and costumes, especially in Paris, where the keenest appreciation is bestowed on beautiful scenic effects; Bulloz worked with the great Bakst, helping in his most daring combinations.
Many actresses, on the stage and in private life, come to him for their gowns—among others Mary Garden, that wonderful artist.
Bulloz is one of the most advanced dressmakers in Paris; he is daring without vulgarity, novel without eccentricity.
An evening cloak of “Lancret” blue velours mousseline is puckered in a cord at the shoulders, waist and hip, trimmed with heavy gold guipure and worn over a frock of black Chantilly lace. By Bulloz. The French train is long and narrow and may be thrown over the arm when one dances
There are a few effects worn at present that have not been applied by him in some form before the season. He shows a preference for floating panels, detached wing-like effects which, while preserving the straight outline, show a love of Greek and sculptural draperies.
Combinations of two contrasting tissues in the same tone are particularly happy here. Among others, a delicate mauve gown of crepe and satin, embroidered in steel is completed by a loose summer coat matching exactly, collared and cuffed in chinchilla, the same steel embroidery forming a yoke.
From a business point of view, Bulloz's career has been singularly busy and a constant success. Four years director at Beer's, he left this firm to establish his own house on the Champs-Elysées.
He was the first great dressmaker to leave the Place Vendome and, thereabouts, and you can imagine the stir caused by this daring exodus westwards!
After a series of partnerships, which although financially successful, “swamp the individuality of the artist,” Bulloz declares he decided to become once more the only head of his affairs.
His new premises on the sunny Boulevard Malesherbes will shortly extend to the entire house after his "opening” in August shows him to the world of buyers once more.
in the Garment Manufacturers' Index, New York: The Allen-Nugent Company, Vol. II, No. 11, June 1921: 32