Hello, darlings! It's Emma, your favourite tutu-loving time-travelling ballerina, and today's #TutuTuesday is taking us back in time to the 21st of March, 1871. It’s such a beautiful day, and I'm feeling positively rosy, especially in this glorious pink tutu. I just love the way the light catches the tulle - it practically shimmers!
Anyway, today, we're going to the Palais Garnier in Paris. Oh, how I adore this magnificent theatre! It's just overflowing with beauty, from the grand staircase to the exquisite auditorium. Now, I know I said we were going back to the 21st of March, 1871, but let's just rewind a little to a few years earlier, in 1861, and talk about tutus. This beautiful theatre, with its breathtaking decor and sparkling chandeliers, was opened to great fanfare just two years before. But do you know what? Our darling ballerina of the day had absolutely nothing to do with this building at all.
Now, imagine this, my darlings. Paris, the heart of elegance and culture. And who do we see stepping onto the stage, wearing something breathtakingly beautiful and utterly impractical? Why, Marie Taglioni! The most celebrated ballerina of her time, wearing the tutu, of course! I’m not sure why but some silly fashion editors today want to make out that this famous dancer made this costume fashionable! I know what I saw when I visited a performance back in time and she didn't wear it! But I’m a fan of how elegant these dresses are for performance, a lot better than what my Mum was telling me ballet dancers wore back in my day and that's definitely not 2023! And don’t you just adore how this delicate tulle, fluttering around like a beautiful cloud, simply shrieks femininity.
And then there's the colour pink! Oh, darling, pink is just the most divine colour. I just know everyone would feel more magical in a pink tutu - wouldn't they? I do! And I can just imagine the chitter-chatter at the Palais Garnier! The elegant ladies all gathered in their fancy bonnets, their elegant dresses sweeping behind them, and everyone gossiping over the latest ballet. Just like the ladies do now... well, sometimes the ladies of today might prefer a handbag over a bonnets.
It's easy to see why the ballet world fell head over heels for this elegant new design. It was just SO much lighter and more practical, but without losing its elegance and beautiful flowing look. And then the other fabulous detail of it - imagine this darling - a dress! Well, not really, because it doesn’t even go past the knee - it’s a skirt, but a magical one! That tiny, magical little skirt let them move so much more freely. The first real proper tutu! It had that effortless flow to it, letting them float across the stage like graceful swans. It had to be a dream to wear, don't you think? It did change fashion a little... and who knows where the idea came from? No-one I spoke to even thought it was worth keeping the idea as there was not a real proper history of the tutu in the days I visited.
Oh, my dears, you must have seen Giselle, right? This iconic ballet is where Taglioni became the queen of the tutu... although not really! She wasn't the inventor... but anyway... there's nothing that could beat the effect of those beautiful light fabrics. Just the perfect stage wear for those heavenly twirls. Every time I visit the time-line, I get goosebumps just thinking about that spectacular piece. I think it still holds the record for being the first really popular ballet. Well, there have been ballet performances for ages, for centuries even, since even before Mozart, but this ballet had that special magic. So you could just feel it as I’m swirling my way around this big old opera house. Oh, and another little detail my lovely ladies: back in my time-travels around 1861, some folks weren’t a fan of this new way to do the dress. So Taglioni and others, for some silly reason had to put it on backwards, with the pleats going downwards! Can you imagine? That's a right shame, darling! Can you imagine the sheer audacity of wearing a tutu like this in Paris in the 1800s?, it must’ve been such an exciting event in Paris. Just as much fun today at the ballet now with modern interpretations, *it’s fantastic*!!!
Speaking of fantastic, this time trip, has me yearning for more, but duty calls and I have an event to get to. My own little dance school concert here in 2023 - yes, in Derbyshire! Imagine - well that’s the trouble, you just can't ever leave your job and you don't have *all the time in the world to just travel and watch the history unfold in a pink tutu. Although some days I feel I should try, just *to try and enjoy every last drop of all things pretty and fluffy, which just happens to be everything I like... and you! Oh darling. I hope you're loving all this pretty fluffy history! I hope I can meet up with you one day and go shopping for a pretty tutu together.* Well, actually, I’d like to meet and see the Palais Garnier again, as well as a little more of the 1860s and maybe the 1780s for that one!
Now I just have time for a little bit of tutu chatter before I have to dart to this meeting, I hear some of my friends are getting quite creative with their own design ideas and using new materials, new technology to create an utterly amazing piece of fashion history! I'm off to go and see the performance at my ballet school concert this afternoon.
Remember, you can come along, just follow me to www.pink-tutu.com. Now I'll leave you in all your girly gorgeousness. Have a fabulously happy week! I’m off! Bye!
Lots of pink sparkly love,
*Emma, The Pink Tutu Blogger. *
