Erte Biography

Erté (birth name birth name Romain de Tirtoff), the famed fashion and stage designer, was born in 1892 to a wealthy family in St. Petersburg , Russia. Erte is considered by many as the epitomy of flamboyance and longevity in twentieth century art and design. Erté, even as a child, did not wish to follow his father's footsteps into the military, who was an Admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy. Erté showed great talent for design, creating his first costume at the age of 5 and then moved to Paris in 1912 at the age of 18. In Paris he worked beside Parisian designer Paul Poiret as a fashion illustrator and learned the art of couture and discovering how clothes could affect the look of a woman's body.

As a young man in the 1920's Erte was hired by the magazine Harper's Bazaar where his flamboyant fashion designs of elaborately plumed hats and long, flowing dresses captured and paralleled the current interest in the emerging design aesthetic of the Art Deco period. He worked at Harper's Bazaar for a full 22 years, and created over 200 magazine covers for the publication in his own Erte distinctive style. While working for the magazine he was hired to design costumes and stage sets for the girls of the famous Folies-Bergère and at the New York City George White's Scandals Club. Erte also worked in the 1920s and 30s on film costume design at the MGM Studios in Hollywood as well as theatre and opera productions.

The extravagence of Erté's designs slowed in cultural popularity with the beginning of World War two, and even after the war most people had more practical wants and basic needs. Erté reinvented his work in the 1960's after a Paris exhibition of his work depicting limited edition lithographs and sculpture. You can find many of Erte's designs in many museums all over the world including the Smithsonian Institution, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Museum of Modern Art as well.