08/24/2026
From the collections: La Guerre et la Rue de la Paix, La Baïonnette, 1916
During World War I in France, fashion, an important industry, became a strong symbolic tool to assert the power and predominance of Gallic culture and to differentiate the French from their wartime enemies. Fashion illustrators, largely unemployed by the fashion business for the duration of the conflict, turned their talents to supporting the war effort in a variety of venues. The pictured image by Gerda Wegener from the sixth issue of La Baïonnette, a French satirical magazine, is an example of this.
This issue La Baïonnette, "Elégances berlinoises," was the first to focus exclusively on fashion, and throughout the years a number of issues were devoted to this topic. But women in every issue were suffused with the modishness of the mannequin, not surprisingly since many illustrators had previously worked for fashion magazines. The Danish illustrator Gerda Wegener, who had begun working for Vogue in 1912, was a featured contributor. Her cover on national dress offered an opportunity to show off her highly detailed, delicately colored, curvilinear style contrasting French fashion through the ages with wartime austerity.
This work is featured in our web exhibition, “En Guerre: French Illustrators and World War I”. You can view this item and many more in the exhibit here: www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/en-guerre-french-illustrators-and-world-war-i/
Pictured Item:
Modes de Guerre, La Baïonnette 20 avril 1916
Illustrated by Gerda Wegener
Rare Book Collection
Call Number: D526.3.B2 c.1
