Photo below: Author Stephanie Farago, courtesy of Stephanie Farago
Photos courtesy of Mannequins Museum Archive, unless otherwise specified.

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Stephanie is an artist of dynamic intensity. She is touted as an “Art Shaman” painting with a theatrical flair in bold waves of color. Her representation of the human form employs archetypes such as the romantic, the fool and the hypocrite.

Her home and studio are like an art deco museum, including one of the largest collections of ,Italian Lenci dolls. She owns a very rare child Lenci mannequin. Visit her website www.artamuse.com .

Stephanie gave me Erte’s address in Paris. I wrote to him and he wrote back a straight forward letter in long hand. Here was an internationally renowned artist, fashion and theatre set-designer, who at ninety-two years old took the time to write me. He was a gentleman. The following is what he wrote:

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Dear Miss Hale

I designed a series of mannequins for Pierre Imans in the thirties. Two of the heads of these mannequins are reproduced in the book “Erte” by Roland Barthes, edited by Franco Maria Ricci. One of them, entitled “Queen of Sheba” is on the cover of the book. The other-one, entitled “The Mysterious Lady,” is on the page 133 of the Italian edition.

With Kindest regards,

Erte

This is the long way of explaining how I received a letter from Erte.

But to me life is the adventure you make of it. Who would think researching the history of mannequins would take me to so many places and introduce me to so many wonderful people?

This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. When I give slide lectures to students I tell them they could take up almost any subject even doorknobs, and it could lead them on adventures around the world.

I always remember the kindness of Adel Rootstein, Rudi Gernreich, Leza and Eric Lidow and Stephanie Farago.

Without special people such as these I would never have had the opportunity to receive a letter from Erte.

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