Woolflash Paris 74. Winter/Hiver Prêt-à-Porter

Paris and New York: International Wool Fashion Office; The Wool Bureau, 1974. Ephemeral 1974 trend report on Parisian knitwear for American designers and showrooms, issued by the International Wool Fashion Office in Paris and The Wool Bureau in New York. Editor Skippy Stone declares: “Fall 1974. . . Total from top to toe. Paris is everything that is at once avant, romantic, feminine, and grand . . . blending the classic and peasant into a new season of big new clothes.” Top runway models of the day, among them Jerry Hall, pose in voluminous layered knits designed by the likes of Kenzo, Issey Miyake, Sonia Rykiel, and Karl Lagerfeld for Chloë. The International (truncated) Wool Secretariat (IWS), the entity behind the IWFO and The Wool Bureau, was the natural fiber mills’ response to DuPont’s introduction of nylon in the 1930s, a major disruptor in the fashion industry. The IWS shaped global fashion trends for decades, through forecasting reports like this one and the International Woolmark Prize, which launched the careers of young designers Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld. In 1997, the IWS would rebrand as The Woolmark Company, keeping their iconic logo, the stylized skein of yarn sprinkled throughout this report. Text in English and French. An uncommon survival. Side-stapled volume, measuring 12 x 9 inches: 80. Original photographic wrappers, black-and-white photographs throughout text. Light foxing and edgewear; evidence of label removal to upper wrapper. (Inventory #: 1003720)