The British born costume and fashion designer Dolly Tree in addition to being prolific in London and the regions in the 1920s had a great vogue in Paris and a great love of being in the French capital. But it is also clear that she developed a strong affinity and love for Spain and Barcelona in particular.
Tag Archives: Folies Bergere
Frisco (Joslin Bingham)
Joslin Bingham was known simply as ‘Frisco’ and became one of the most celebrated performers in Paris during the Jazz Age of the 1920s and then replicated his success in London in the 1930s. He was a jack of all trades, a fixer and a man behind the scenes who helped many black artists in Paris and London including Josephine Baker, Bricktop and Adelaide Hall.
Dolly Tree Interview in the Daily Express 26th January 1922
I recently found a detailed interview with Dolly Tree in the Daily Express from January 1922 in the British Newspaper Archive. This feature was not available during the research for my biography Dolly Tree: A Dream of Beauty and so the information it provides was not included. So here is the text and commentary as it does show some invaluable and interesting points.
Continue reading Dolly Tree Interview in the Daily Express 26th January 1922
Crysede and Dolly Tree
Sometime in mid 1921 the theatrical costume designer Dolly Tree became associated with the famous Cornish textile company Crysede and the owner Alec Walker.
The Costume Designer Zig
The costume designer Zig was the pen-name of one of the great artists for the Paris music hall in the Jazz Age. Prolific as an illustrator, creating artwork for posters, programme covers and sheet music, Zig also created stunning sets and costumes with a tremendous flair and originality from the mid to late 1920s and early 1930s, before dying at an early age in 1936. He must not to be confused with another illustrator called Zig Brunner.
Les Acacias, Night-Club, Paris
The Acacias night-club was a hall at the rear of the Hotel Acacias sited at 47 Rue des Acacias near the Bois de Bologne with a garden utilized for the summer. It was one of the many night-resorts in Paris in the Jazz Age that became a favoured rendezvous of high society throughout the 1920s. The roster of performers who appeared at Les Acacias was astonishing, providing a veritable Who’s Who of glittering international stars of stage and cabaret.
Erna Carise
Erna Carise
I particularly love an art deco sketch by Erna Carise from 1927 that I discovered in one of my Parisian magazines simply called ‘Jazz’. So I decided to do a little digging and discovered that she had been a rather glamorous dancer and songstress in Paris, Berlin and New York from the late 1920s through to the 1940s and also had a talent as a costume designer or artist.
Dolly Tree: A Dream of Beauty
Dolly Tree: A Dream of Beauty by Gary Chapman
A long lost artistic genius of the Jazz Age, Dolly Tree was famous on both sides of the Atlantic, for her extravagant creations that appeared in stage shows, cabaret, couture and film in the glamorous 1920s and 1930s. It is now time for her to be reclaimed as one of the great British dress-designers of the 20th century
The Gaby Doll Scene
The Gaby Doll Scene
Recently Doreen Marshall sent me a photo and message on my Jazz Age Club Facebook page of a 1920s Gaby Doll and box. It certainly piqued my interest because it was a representation of a scene from the Folies Bergere in 1923 with the costume designed by Dolly Tree.
