ERTE

RUSSIAN BORN FASHION DESIGNER AND ARTIST ROMAIN DE TIRTOFF (23.NOVEMBER.1892 - 21.APRIL.1990) , WHO CALLED HIMSELF ERTE AFTER THE FRENCH PRONUNCIATION OF HIS INITIALS, WAS ONE OF THE FOREMOST FASHION AND STAGE DESIGNERS OF THE EARLY 20th CENTURY. ERTE IS PERHAPS MOST FAMOUS FOR HIS ELEGANT FASHION DESIGNS WHICH CAPTURED THE ART DECO PERIOD IN WHICH HE WORKED. HIS DELICATE FIGURES AND SOPHISTICATED, GLAMOROUS DESIGNS ARE INSTANTLY RECOGNIZABLE, AND HIS IDEAS AND ART INFLUENCE FASHION INTO THE 21st CENTURY. HIS COSTUMES AND SETS WERE FEATURED IN THE ZIEGFELD FOLLIES OF 1923, MANY PRODUCTIONS OF THE FOLLIES BERGERE, AND GEORGE WHITE'S SCANDALS. IN 1925, LOUIS B MAYER BROUGHT HIM TO HOLLYWOOD TO DESIGN SETS AND COSTUMES FRO A FILM CALLED PARIS. THERE WERE TO MANY SCRIPT PROBLEMS SO ERTE WAS GIVEN OTHER ASSIGNMENTS TO KEEP HIM BUSY. BY FAR HIS BEST KNOWN IMAGE IS SYMPHONY IN BLACK, DEPICTING A TALL, SLENDER WOMAN DRAPED IN BLACK HOLDING A THIN BLACK DOG ON A LEASH. THE INFLUENTIAL IMAGE HAS BEEN REPRODUCED AND COPIES COUNTLESS TIMES. ERTE CONTINUES WORKING THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE DESIGNING REVUES, BALLETS AND OPERAS. HE HAD A MAJOR REJUVENATION AND MUCH LAUDED INTEREST IN HIS CAREERS DURING THE 1960s TO THE EARLY 1980s WITH THE ART DECO REVIVAL. HE BRANCHED OUT INTO THE REALM OF LIMITED EDITION PRINTS, BRONZES, AND ART TO WEAR. NUMEROUS MUSEUMS AROUND THE WORLD PURCHASED DOZENS OF HIS ART WORKS FOR THEIR COLLECTIONS. ON HIS DEATH IN 1990, HE WAS HAILED AS THE "PRINCE OF THE MUSIC HALL", "FATHER OF ART DECO" AND "A MIRROR OF FASHION FOR 75 YEARS".