Ethel P. Chaffin — Confessions of the Stars’ Modiste (1924) 🇺🇸

Stars and their styles make interesting talk. Here Ethel Chaffin, modiste to a score of stars, speaks with authority

by Helen Carlisle

When Ethel Chaffin speaks on the subject of clothes, it is well to heed what she has to say. For five years she has designed the gowns and wraps worn on the screen by the Famous Players-Lasky stars, including Pola Negri, Gloria Swanson, Nita Naldi, Leatrice Joy, Agnes Ayres, Bebe Daniels and many other film luminaries.

Mrs. Chaffin is that individual rare in these days, a gentlewoman. She is slender and blue eyed, and soft of voice. Despite a quiet, retiring manner, however, Mrs. Chaffin has very definite ideas, and I can well imagine that the young actress who essays to cross swords with her invariably comes out loser in the battle. During our conversation, which took place in her studio offices, she was constantly interrupted by ringing telephones and hurried assistants who wished to obtain her final word on this, that, and the other thing. Mrs. Chaffin, like a general directing maneuvers from headquarters, remained calm and unflurried.

“This department grew thru necessity,” she explained. “Sometimes I am given only three or four days to get up the costumes for a picture, and we found that it was impossible to get outside dressmakers to finish the work for us in time. So we decided to take it all over ourselves. I have on hand over three thousand gowns and wraps. They are constantly being altered. We never use the same garment twice without alteration.

“Every year I make a trip to New York to study the new styles, and when time permits I go over to Paris. I prefer seeing what the women are actually wearing in these places, tho, to attending fashion shows. At the races at Longchamps and Deauville, and on the Riviera during the winter, one sees what fashion dictates.

“There is no question in my mind, tho, that the American women are better groomed than foreign women. For one thing, our girls here will not permit themselves to grow stout, and show their clothes off too much better advantage than do the Frenchwomen, who seem indifferent in this matter.

“The most difficult period I have gone thru at the studio here was the long skirt period. Now, there are some girls who simply cannot wear long skirts. Bebe Daniels and May MacAvoy, for instance, look exactly like little girls dressed up in their mother’s clothes, when they attempt to wear them.

“Gloria .Swanson, tho, must have the long lines. Gloria knows how to wear clothes better than any woman I have ever known. In reality, Gloria does not wear more striking things than our other stars. You may doubt this, but it is true. She is interested, tho, in whatever she puts on, vitally interested. She wears it with, an air. She does not expect clothes alone to create an impression for her. She lends her personality to them. When women have learned this secret of Gloria’s, they will have discovered how to make the most of their appearance.

“Lois Wilson, on the other hand, does not lend herself to what she is wearing. Lois is happiest in plain dresses or sports clothes. When it is necessary for her to wear the more elaborate type of thing, she expects the designer to create the desired impression, and this is impossible without her co-operation. If Lois would become interested in wearing the lovelier things, herself, she would find that she can wear them beautifully. It is a quality she should cultivate.

“Pola Negri’s tastes are extremely simple. She is restless and impatient in elaborate creations. They seem to hamper and annoy her. But let her put on a little costume like the gypsy one she wore in ‘The Spanish Dancer’ and she just lets herself go. She’s like a child.

“Betty Compson and Agnes Ayres are what I call the ‘lacy type of girl.’ Dainty hand-embroidered frocks, chiffons and organdies are for them. Leatrice Joy’s type of beauty permits the wearing of the more striking creations. Like Gloria, she gives personality to her clothes. Nita Naldi wears the bizarre creations well. Nothing is too severe for her almost barbaric beauty.”

According to Mrs. Chaffin, the Lasky stars are a tractable lot of young ladies when being fitted for their clothes. Having witnessed outbursts of temper and flares of rage more than once, in modistes’ shops, I expected to find that in such a group of high-powered celebrities were some who added but little to the peace of nations when things went wrong, and costumes did not meet with their approval.

But Mrs. Chaffin says this isn’t true, at all, tho I doubt that this diplomatic little lady would tell state secrets if it were.

“No, the stars never indulge in temperament, up here. Each one is quite patient about her fittings, but invariably is more interested in the clothes she is to wear in a picture, if she is happy in the role assigned her. The leading players gave me no difficulty, but this is not always so true of the extra girls and minor players, who frequently wish to wear the most elaborate and showy things in the wardrobe. They think the camera will pick them up — that they will be noticed more quickly in clothes of this sort, no matter how inappropriate.”

Mrs. Chaffin took me thru the wardrobe department, which might be described in a word, as any woman’s paradise. Gowns of every description were mere, gem-encrusted robes, fur-trimmed evening wraps, frocks of the most exquisite materials, velvets, satins, metal cloth and brocades, rare imported materials. It might have been the wardrobe of a Beatrice d’Este, reigning in an Age of Gold.

“You can see,” said Mrs. Chaffin with pardonable pride, “that we use no make-shift materials. Everything is of the very best quality. Of course,” she added, displaying a negligee hand-painted in elaborate and intricate design, “the colors do not show up on the screen, but our girls are only human, you know, and they enjoy wearing colors. I think you’ll find every hue of the rainbow here.”

“Yes,” I agreed, “and a good many that the rainbow left out. Do the directors show a great deal of interest in the clothes their stars are to wear in a production?” I asked.

“Yes, indeed,” answered Mrs. Chaffin, “tho I should say that Cecil De Mille and Herbert Brenon show more interest than do any of the others. Probably I should include William De Mille in that statement,” she laughed. “You know, as a rule he does the simple, heart-interest type of story, but when he has the script for a picture requiring elaborate costumes, you should just see him plunge! He delights in it. “Before production starts on a picture,” she explained, “I always go over the script with the director, and we decide how many changes of costume the principal women players are to have. Then my artists sketch designs. Some of the directors can visualize more easily than others from the designs, how the finished costumes will look, and frequently have suggestions and ideas that are of great value to me. I welcome suggestions from the stars, too, when they wish to offer them.”

I gained tho, that credit for the unusual and original styles created at this studio, belonged rather to the designers in the wardrobe department than to either stars or directors.

We stood now before a glass case filled with jeweled head-dresses.

“The bobbed-hair vogue has made bandeaux and headdresses popular,” said Mrs. Chaffin, “but young women should be careful to select such ones as suit their individuality. In designing head-dresses for our stars, we study the face very carefully. The hair ornament has become part of the fashionable woman’s toilette, but unless it suits the personality of the wearer, it detracts from, rather than adds to her appearance.”

“Mrs. Chaffin,” I said, “frequently the stars of the screen are criticized as being overdressed. The explanation is invariably given that the motion picture audiences demand exotic, bizarre and extreme creations on their favorites. Do you believe this?”

Mrs. Chaffin smiled at me out of her quiet eyes, but I felt as tho I had abruptly brought up against a stone wall.

“That does seem to be the prevailing opinion, doesn’t it?” she said sweetly. “It is a question quite worth asking.”

But it was one that she wouldn’t answer. An amazingly woman, this little Mrs. Chaffin.

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Mrs. Chaffin’s comments would seem to belie the paraphrase that no woman is a heroine to her modiste. Her latest portrait is reproduced above and, on the right, is her sketch for one of Agnes Ayres’ gowns in Bluff

Photograph by Richee [Eugene Robert Richee]

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Lois Wilson expects the designer to create an impression of elaborateness. She lends no co-operation and is happiest in sport clothes.

Mary Astor needs simple things — for her beauty has the spirit of tender years

Photograph by Richee [Eugene Robert Richee]

Leatrice Joy’s beauty permits the wearing of more striking creations. Like Gloria Swanson, she gives personality to her clothes

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Then there is Nita Naldi. Nothing is too severe for her barbaric beauty. She wears bizarre creations well

Elaborate creations make Pola Negri restless and impatient. They hamper and annoy her… And Gloria Swanson lends her personality to whatever she wears. When a woman learns this secret of Gloria’s, she has learned to make the most of her appearance

Collection: Motion Picture Magazine, July 1924