From Paris to Providence

In their elegant Providence Shop, Italian emigre sisters Anna and Laura Tirocchi sold French couture clothing to an elite clientele. The shop, remained virtually untouched from 1947 until 1990, when RISD Museum curators were given their choice of its contents, which included apparel by Paul Poiret, Lucien Lelong, and dresses in the style of Madeleine Vionnet.

All reflect the advent of modernism in the Paris art world of 1920s and 30s, when designers, painters and printmakers were collaborating as never before to create fashion. From "Paris to Providence" catalogues these efforts with beautiful illustrations and six essays that examine the era's social and art-historical issues.