This was not quite such a trivial preoccupation as it might first seem. Since the seventeenth century, Paris had been synonymous with elegance and glamour, while the ingenuity of the Parisiennes during the occupation had not only boosted morale but made quite an impression on the arriving Allied troops. Stumping along in their wooden-soled shoes or bicycling in short A-line skirts stitched together from scarves (silk in the fashionable arrondissements, cotton in the bohemian sixth), with their sculpted hairdos and elaborately decorated hats reminiscent of Marie-Antoinette, they had, unlike the British, refused to surrender to utility. Paris fashion was the nexus of an economy that employed many, from the silk weavers of Lyon to the hundreds of specialist couture artisans in the capital; it was therefore economic necessity as much as national pride which required its reinvigoration. In March 1944, the Chambre Syndicale staged an exhibition directed by Bébé Bérard featuring dolls costumed in the best the couture houses could produce.
