French and German fashion catalogues, early to mid-20th century

Amongst the large collection of books, magazines, newspapers and other material assembled in Germany by Hans Carl Opfermann, and acquired by Massey University Library in 2010, were thirteen volumes of outstanding and extremely rare fashion plates produced by the French fashion house Atelier Gustave Lyon, of Paris (from 1912, Ateliers Gustave Lyon, of Paris and Berlin). Eleven of the volumes were produced in France and two in Germany, but it is believed that all the volumes were catalogues in active use in the company's Berlin establishment, and that they were consulted by wealthy clients who visited the premises to choose the latest fashions.

Some of the volumes contained dressmaking pins which had fallen in between the pages - this, and the lack of text describing the fashions illustrated (except for in one German volume), tend to support the theory that these beautiful plates were for in-house use and were not otherwise circulated in this form. Every design is numbered - in most cases there is one per page, but some pages, especially towards the end of volumes, bear two, three or four designs.

Selected volumes are shown here on Tamiro, together with other fashion-related material from the Opfermann Collection.

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