Avery Trufelman

They had no customers and no materials at all.

Everything had gone to the war effort.

Shreds of leather and buttons were rare.

Even spools of thread were few and far between.

And this was really hard for France.

I mean, the country has a department of its government devoted to regulating high fashion.

It's called the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture.

And even in that post-occupation scarcity, the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture wanted to send a message to the world.

And the Chambre Syndicale came up with an idea.

They would gather all the famous French fashion designers together to do a joint fall collection.

They would use real fur, real leather, real silk, no compromises.

Well, except that everything would have to be in miniature.

That way they could scrape together just enough to make tiny outfits, tiny shoes, little purses and gloves and belts, and still use real materials.

So they revived an old, old French practice.

Fashion dolls.

Dolls were, in effect, the first catalogs.

Clothiers were sending out dolls to wealthy families and royal circles way before the first fashion magazine came out in the late 1700s.

So the Chambers and Decaux decided to use dolls again.

They reached out to fashion houses like Balenciaga and Nina Ricci and Hermes, and they each volunteered to create an outfit or two.

The project was organized as a fundraiser for war refugees and victims.