Print Upon Pattern

The Costume of the Ballets Russes

Bakst’s costume design for The Firebird, 1910Famed as the greatest ballet company of the last century, the Ballets Russes captured the public’s imagination and changed the concept of ballet globally, through its new and groundbreaking dance, art and music with Avant-Garde, Expressionist and Oriental influences. With Sergei Diaghilev at its head, and a company of dancers originating from St Petersburg, it performed itinerantly between 1909 and 1929 causing a sensation wherever it travelled.

Diaghilev commissioned many significant visual artists and designers of the early twentieth century, such as Picasso, Matisse, Miró, Dalí and Chanel to name just a few. Often these artists were responsible for both set and costume.

Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes

Bakst’s Odalisque costume and Nijinsky, from Shéhérazade, 1910Bakst’s costume and design for Shah Zeman in Shéhérazade, 1910-1930sBakst’s Columbine costume design for Carnaval in 1942 (left) and Columbine and Harlequin in 1911 (right)One of the lasting legacies of the Ballets Russes are the costumes, not least because they survive from an era when documentary film was only in its infancy. Intricately designed and multi-layered costumes feature multiple textiles, with print piled upon pattern in surprising combinations. Bold in design and colour, they shocked audiences used to a very different and traditional style of costume. Compare these to ballerinas in tutus (think Degas’ ballerina paintings), and you can easily imagine how jaws must have dropped in astonishment.

Madame Fedorova as Cléopatra in 1913, ph E.O. HoppéCompare the execution with the drawing: a Syrian Dancer’s costume for Cléopatra, by Bakst, 1909

[Bakst] became famous for his exotic, richly coloured sets and costumes …

Goncharova’s design for a female costume in Le Coq d'Or, 1914Leon Bakst is a particular favourite of mine. One of the most important designers for the Ballets Russes, Bakst took on the role of artistic director at the ballet’s formation. He became famous for his exotic, richly coloured sets and costumes, particularly for Scheherazade, Firebird and Le Spectre de la Rose. Another Russian designer, Natalia Goncharova, was inspired by Russian folk art, fauvism and cubism, and along with a vivid sense of colour, these influences are visible in her work. (Read a previous post on her here.)

Back then Coco Chanel and Paul Poiret were two fashion designers both inspired by the Ballets Russes, whose impact has scarcely lessened today.

Bakst’s costume design for a Nymph in L'Après-midi d'un Faune, 1912Bakst’s costume design for a Nymph in L'Après-midi d'un Faune, 1912; you could easily wear this as a light summer dress todayBakst’s costume design for an attendant (1910), and Monsieur Adolph Bolm (1913), both for L'Oiseau de Feu; ph E.O. Hoppé

Madame Thamar Karsavina in Bakst’s costume for L'Oiseau de Feu, 1913; ph E.O. HoppéBakst’s costume design for La Sultan, The Firebird, 1910Bakst’s costume design for The Firebird, 1910

Unless otherwise indicated, images from National Gallery of Australia’s exhibition Ballets Russes, The Art of Costume.