Plume

One of the biggest symbols of French and Parisian life during the interwar period was the capital city’s lavish musical revues and the larger-than-life venues housing them. Such names as the Folies Bergère, the Moulin Rouge and Olympia Hall echo the feverish excitement of their shows, which to this day serve as a benchmark for what looks and feels glamorous. The Plume design in our Vintage Vogue collection gives us a peek at the razzle and dazzle to which audiences were treated nightly in these iconic music halls.

At that time, modern forms of entertainment such as radio and cinema were rapidly growing in popularity and music hall impresarios spared no expense in attempting to outshine them – both literally and figuratively. They mounted live performances with a lot of glitter and even nudity, extravaganzas that couldn’t be matched by voice or screen alone. To stage these spectacular shows, cabaret managers hired the best talent not only among singers and dancers but also people who were to work on venue interiors, costumes, stage sets and posters. Included among these talented individuals were young, promising designers whose imaginative and deft artistic touch would soon be setting the tone for people’s nights out.

One of these up-and-coming designers was Alec Shanks, an Englishman with Scottish roots. He got his start helping with set designs in Birmingham at the Theatre Royale, but found that as most performance venues in England produced their own shows, there were very few actual designer positions and the competition for these was very stiff. Shanks reasoned that in order to bypass this roadblock, he should cross the Channel and build a reputation for himself in Paris. This move proved exceptionally wise, as he was soon enjoying great success designing sets for world-famous revues at the Moulin Rouge and the Folies Bergère.

During the early Thirties, Shanks became one of the top designers at the Folies Bergère. His work included creating show posters, one of which eventually made it onto this Paperblanks cover. The original was a 1932 poster for the revue titled “Nuits de Folies.” The image, which he created using charcoal, watercolour and gouache, features a lineup of poised chorus girls in fantastical outfits, a sight that is a true staple of the tradition of cabaret shows.