Enough back story. In amongst all this treasure was this photograph, which I have scanned for you because it's a thing of beauty and hence a joy forever:
I love it. I have loved it since I first clamped eyes on it. Stripes are one of my favorite things but what always got me here is the skirt. The black glove shapes radiating out from the waist on a white background. Wowza. Love it. I've always wanted to do something with the concept but was afraid the hand-theme, taken away from context, would look a bit too much like a cute "Manos the Hands of Fate" costume. Not that that wouldn't be appropriate at ComicCon or something.
But this was all I knew about it. Just that little scrap of text under the photo, because this is exactly how it was originally cut out by my Nana lo these many years ago.
Susan Jaffe as The Glove Seller in Gaîté Parisienne, for the American Ballet Theater, in it's 60th year of existence.
Great, that is REAL helpful. Costumes can be SUCH hard nuts to crack because of the way they are created for one company and then rented or sold (or both) to other companies for as long as the fabric can stay mostly cohesive (and then a liiiiiiittle bit longer than that).
But I have searched for it online for several years, anyway, out of hope.
BUT! The internet finally caught up with me and my labor of love has born sweet fruit! Check it, guys. This baby was made in 1983 (1983! I was 2!) for ABT and designed by Christian LaCroix, who apparently has a long and beautiful string of ballets under his design belt. As it were (as an aside, I cannot cannot cannot hear of Christian LaCroix without thinking of Lucien LaCroix, from the early 90s Canadian vampire TV cop show Forever Knight. CANNOT. But anyway.)
So, there we have it. BUT EVEN BETTER!
We have more pictures, guys!
Here is the first one I found:
And then, paydirt as it were, I found this one:
YAAAAAAAAY!
Okay, I think I am done being a total ballet costume nerd, now.
Okay, no. No, I'm not.
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