The age of the ‘roaring twenties’ remains in our collective consciousness as a heady period of flapper girls, jazz, gin and wild parties, when the girls rolled their stockings down and danced up a storm. With such idyllic and opulent imagery in mind, German still-life photographer Michael Baumgarten created this boudoir scene with styling by textile designer Veerle Hommelen (who worked for some years with Olivier Theyskens at the house of Rochas).

Their images offer a true admiration for the intimate accessories and historical elements of the feminine wardrobe, with exquisite vintage pieces sourced from the Didier Ludot collection in Paris, the Collectors Gallery in Brussels, and Antwerp’s MoMu fashion museum. In the soft-focus closeups, perfume bottles are strewn across the floor among patterned high-heel shoes, alongside scalloped-edge dresses in soft pastels. A young girl lays amongst her precious possessions dressed only in sheer hosiery, her curvaceous figure reflected infinitely as she gazes through the floor-length mirror.

Note: Complementing the original shoot, Olivier Theyskens chose to include the painting below in the online edition of NºD, for the perfect semblance of colour and pattern. Unable to recall the artists name, Olivier described him as a poor Russian artist who lived and worked in Nice during the 1950s. The artwork carries the theme of reflection from the original story, as it is filled with abstracted mirror images of the male and female form.

Above: A painting from Olivier Theyskens’ private collection.

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Photography: Michael Baumgarten.
Styling: Veerle Hommelen.
Makeup: Mathias van Hooff.
Thanks to: Didier Ludot (Paris), MoMu Fashion Museum (Antwerp), Betty de Stefano @ Collectors Gallery (Brussels). All items are from the 20s/30s/40s and are anonymous.