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humanities 497 university of toronto quarterly, volume 72, number 1, winter 2002/3 Exclusive designs necessitated an exclusive clientele. In post-war Paris, bringing sellers and buyers together in this stylized pas de deux required the intervention of women with specialist knowledge and contacts. Introductions were needed for the uninitiated, the newly rich, the first-time traveller. For a price, these were made available by society vendeuses like Laura Bacon, who smoothed the path for would-be consumers of Parisian luxuries. Once approved and in the couturiers= salons, vendeuses learned the preferences and social needs of their clients, overseeing fittings and ensuring appropriate selections, dispensing artifacts of taste to North American women. But even as French couturiers re-established the cachet of their designs following the Second World War, the pressures of international marketing changed the ways in which designs reached the public. Palmer tracks the roles of some of Toronto=s most prominent retailers B Eaton=s, Holt Renfrew, Creeds, and Simpson=s B who brought original and interpreted versions of French styles to Toronto women. Stores like Eaton=s faced conflicting impulses. On the one hand, they garnered considerable prestige by showing original designs from Paris in seasonal shows, offering these to their best clients. At the same time, the desire to sell more items with an approximation of French style, to a wider range of customers, drove retailers to revise their old relationships with couturiers. As Paris designers found new ways to bring their designs to North American markets, so North American retailers devised new ways to sell couture at cheaper prices, to a wider array of professional and society women, paving the way for the prêt à porter that was to come. This is a sumptuous book, beautifully illustrated with photographs of gowns, suits, and dresses from the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, garments which originated in the passion for couture among Toronto=s elite. The spreading influence of couture is one of the most interesting aspects of this book, as Palmer uncovers the trade in bonded models, second-hand couture garments, and >adapted= French originals sold through New York and Toronto outlets, spreading French designs far beyond the wealthy few. This is recent history. And for some readers this volume will revive memories of social occasions structured by strict dress codes B smart little wool suits for committee work; elegant afternoon and cocktail dresses, without décolletage; dramatic gowns for formal events that could be altered and worn for years. Couture was modified to fit local norms, combining luxury and the disciplined regulation of dress, for a small social elite that wanted style without extremes. While there is little critical reflection on the social context of these women=s lives, their individual and collective social engagements are clearly developed. Tracing the public displays of private consumption, Palmer captures the expressions of taste among Toronto=s >best dressed= and reinterprets the wider world of couture. (BEVERLY LEMIRE) Martin Hunter. Romancing the Bard: Stratford at Fifty 498 letters in canada 2001 university of toronto quarterly, volume 72, number 1, winter 2002/3 Dundurn Press. 304. $39.99 In 2002 the Stratford Festival reached its half-century, and Martin Hunter has pre-empted competition with a handsomely produced, informative, frequently amusing, but unabashedly personal account of the first fifty years. Romancing the Bard makes no claim to be theatre history in the usual sense, but is a roughly chronological series of essays on aspects of the complicated Stratford operation, interspersed with lavishly illustrated vignettes of over thirty productions. After a preface by Dan Needles and an introductory comment on the >romance= of theatre in general, successive chapters cover the festival=s genesis; the character and career of Tyrone Guthrie; Tanya Moiseiwitsch and the thrust stage=s emphasis on design; English Canadian theatre before Stratford, with Michael Langham=s innovations; French Canadian theatre and the contribution of Jean Gascon; expansion of Stratford=s mandate beyond the original focus on Shakespeare; music and musical comedies; financial organization and recurrent fiscal crises; Robin Phillips=s tenure and the controversial importation of foreign >stars=; the John Dexter >Gang of Four= débâcle; the responsibilities of an artistic director, with the...

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