“We love Rene Gruau for how he loved women.  His elegant sketches of women define glamour with their emphasis on the ultra-feminine silhouette in rapture with a flowing gown, stole, bolero, cape or wrap over evening wear…making women and their luxury fashion the most natural thing in the world”  Roberta

Few people had a more iconic influence on 20th Century women’s fashion design than Rene Gruau.  Rene Gruau’s drawings of elegant women in bold, rhythmic and colorful lines with fluid style have attracted legions of couture-devotees to his illustrations.

Rene Gruau’s creative collaboration in 1947 with his friend, Christian Dior, who entrusted him with drawing the Miss Dior advertisement and the famous “Bar” suit, created Dior’s New Look in women’s fashion and brought Gruau’s fashion drawings to critical acclaim. 

Fashion designer John Galliano said “Gruau captured Dior’s style and spirit better than any other…for me, a Gruau sketch captures the energy, the sophistication and daring of Dior.”

Rene Gruau ultimately worked with all of the greatest names in Haute Couture - from Balmain, Balenciaga, Lanvin, Givenchy, Rochas, Shiaparelli, and Fath to Molyneux.  Gruau is renowned the world over for groundbreaking illustrations that were published in Femina, Marie-Claire, L’Officiel, L’Album Du Figaro, and later for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and Flair, and influenced the graphic style of a whole generation of fashion illustrators.  Equally influential was his new way of photographing everything from vintage perfume bottles to women’s fashion accessories, the industry benefits of which are still vividly present in fashion photography today. 

Rene Gruau was born in Italy in 1909 of an aristocratic Italian father and a French mother, Marie Gruau - an artist whose name he took.  While still a teenager, Rene’s fashion sketches were already being accepted by German, French and Italian magazines.  Rene Gruau is said to have been inspired by Toulouse-Lautrec’s sketches as well as by classical Japanese Kabuki theatre and woodcuts, which influenced his motifs on a ground of flat tone using broad, flowing brushstrokes, pen, Indian ink and gouache.  

View White Stole’s entire collection for size color ranges of Stoles, Stole Wraps, Vintage Stoles, Stole Capes and Shawls for purchase, or rental, on our website.

Postwar era of women’s styling was characterized by extravagantly romantic and uber-feminine fashion that carried on into the 1950’s.  In 1947, Christian Dior declared that it was because women longed to look like women again that they adopted his New Look after the war.  

“After the narrow, restricted styles of the war, the New Look was an explosion of fabric and petticoats – everything everyone had been denied all those years” said Babs Simpson, of Harpers Bazaar.

“Coming after so long a period of restriction, it was a kind of volupte” said Fancoise Giroud, of Elle Magazine.

The elements of the New Look were full, billowy skirts that fell just below the calf, narrow waists, and soft, distinctly feminine shoulders that required a significant amount of fabric – a signature look that marked a cultural shift in women’s couture.

View White Stole’s entire collection for size color ranges of Stoles, Stole Wraps, Vintage Stoles, Stole Capes and Shawls for purchase, or rental, on our website.

Any study of fashion can not be separated from women’s fashion history and an understanding of the beginnings of Haute Couture literally meaning “high-quality sewing.”  Paris had been the center of couture since the 19th Century when couture was transformed from a craft into business, and high art. 

Women’s fashion had been put on ice during WWII from 1939 to 1944.  During the occupation of Paris in 1940, many fashion houses were forced into war-related industries.  The progress of the war made it necessary to prohibit all superfluous material and labor.  America followed Britain in clothes rationing with L85 restrictions, promoting the approved ” Victory Suit” with its narrow styling as being more practical and patriotic. 

The Allied Nations were at a loss when Paris fell because they had looked to Paris as the World Capital of Fashion since the 17th Century.  Despite materials rationing on both sides of the Atlantic, some 20 Parisian couture fashion houses violated the wartime silhouette during this time and continued to produce approximately 100 models per year – primarily for wealthy collaborators or for export to Germany.  From Designers to Apprentices, the French declared they had fought to keep Parisian Couture alive because it represented a Parisian industry of prime importance, a means of employment…but most importantly, because it preserved Haute Couture in the eyes of the world.

View White Stole’s entire collection for size color ranges of Stoles, Stole Wraps, Vintage Stoles, Stole Capes and Shawls for purchase, or rental, on our website.

At White Stole Collection, we know that everyone’s Love List includes something new, of high-quality, and less ephemeral…but most importantly, something that will last the long term.   We also know that to our discriminating bridal clients, image is more than just appearance - it is the stylish impression made as surely as what is said - or done - in life.  Our clients know the Brand of the luxury goods they choose to own will make a difference to their lives...on the most important day of their lives, and over their lifetime.  White Stole brings the passion of highly refined luxury goods forward to it’s highest artform....to the passionate women who love to own them!

Here at White Stole Couture Collection, we are Masters Certified, Consulting Professionals in Washington State as well as Stylists, presenting and consulting on luxury couture that celebrates appearance and personal communication through exquisite style. Our work is conducted through private consultation, presentation, styling, coaching, and interpersonal interactions with our bridal clients at all industry levels. Our methods result in bringing an individual’s style and couture language to a new level of excitement, polish and empowerment.

Our representation consists of curated and preserved hand-tailored Vintage American Stoles, along with Influential Italian Luxury Couture design and production of printed, solid and yarn-dyed luxury Women’s Wraps in silk or cashmere using the traditional, heritage-based, hand dyed and silk-screened custom-manufacturing that has been used since our manufacturing company's inception in 1945 in Como, Italy.  Italian Couture Lines represented include Valentino and Leonard, Paris.  

View White Stole’s entire collection for size and color ranges of Stoles, Stole Wraps, Vintage Stoles, Stole Capes and Shawls for purchase, or rental, on our website.