Corticelli and Mink (G56)

Black silk twenties dress with tiny, embroidered, blue flowers. A high slit on the left side of the skirt is covered with one of the scarves that are gathered at the waist. In one of the hallmark influences of Russian style, we see the fur trimming on the sleeves and hip scarf.

Irene Foote and her husband Vernon Castle were famous ballroom dancers of the early 20th century. Beginning about 1914 they operated several clubs and studios in New York City, toured the country dancing, and were able to charge as much as $1,000 an hour for lessons. They appeared in an Irving Berlin musical, “”Watch Your Step,”” and in the film “”The Whirl of Life””. Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger played the Castles in 1939 in “”The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle.””

Irene Castle was an important promotional link for Corticelli Silks during the early 1920s. Women around the country envied Irene’s uncorseted waist and her bobbed hair. Unfortunately, the Castles’ fame was short-lived when Vernon died in a training flight crash. “”Irene Castle Corticelli Fashions,”” designed by New York ready-to-wear firms Jesse Woolf & Company, Jacob Rappaport & Company, and Joseph A. Morris & Company, were available at “”an exclusive dealer in each city.”” (Harper’s Bazaar, vol. LVIV, no. 3 March 1924, p. 125)

Irene Castle herself was dressed by her favorite designers Lucile and Paul Poiret. Dress comes with an Irene Castle promotional photograph board.

Label: Irene Castle Model, Made of Corticelli Silks