Film gaufré: Sonia Delaunay

This rare fashion film is an exquisite showcase of Sonia Delaunay’s ‘Simultaneous’ dresses and fabrics, quite possibly made at the artist’s Parisian studio and home at 19 Boulevard Malesherbes. Dating around 1926-7 and filmed using the tricolor additive Keller-Dorian process (later also known as ‘Kodacolor cine film’), the film presents Delaunay’s geometric designs in rich colours. Having gradually shifted focus from painting to textile and clothing design in the early 1920s, and advocating the production of unique, one-off pieces, Delaunay treated her design work – and quite clearly also this film production – as an extension of her artistic practice. The film was one vehicle with which to make her case that there should be no hierarchy between fine and decorative arts (among other things, Delaunay used the film in her lectures about the influence of painting on clothing design).