Paris couture in Filene's Basement???

[avamac]

Paris couture in Filene\'s Basement???

Just perusing Filene's Basement site where they state in their timeline for 1940:

"Basement buyers purchase the inventories for Paris shops, including designs by Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli, as the Nazis advance on Paris. The European fashions are shipped to the Boston Basement for sale to American bargain hunters." :o

 

[Jonathan]

They must mean the contents of their boutiques which would have been ready-made shoes, belts, scarves etc. Especially as Chanel and Schiaparelli are two of the few couturiers who had boutiques in 1940 - most still had only ateliers with showrooms, the boutique is common now and where all the couturiers make their money (couture dressmaking loses money now) but the idea was just beginning to take off in the 1930s.