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Thayaht (Ernesto Michahelles). “Un manteau, de Madeleine Vionnet”. La Gazette du bon ton, nº 9, Paris, 1922
“Thayaht was no ordinary illustrator. In fact, he saw himself as a fashion inventor with specific reference to his collaboration with his brother toward the development oa a utopian system of clothing for men, which was issued as one of many Futurist manifestoes. Thus, a designer more than a subservient illustrator, Thayaht conceptualized illustration. As much as his lines of forces suggest motion and eternity in the utopian forms of clothing that included asymmetrical vests and jackets for men in Futurist prints, his 1920s illustrations for Vionnet suggest at least an exalted ephemerality for fahion. Vionnet dresses shown with twists and complexity are often difficult to identify in illustrations; Thayaht's illustrations are especially perplexing and suggest a generic rather than a specific similarity. How ironic that some of Thayaht's most effective images depict the sports of golfing, swimming, and skating that capture real motion through Cubist devices. These are not Cubist or Futurist masterpieces or the kinds of fashion that will foster a more perfect, utopian future. They are therefore perhaps less than Thayaht's highest aspirations. They are merely the most practical form of fashion and lifestyle. They became lifestyle images precisely because Cubism was by the 1920s able to achieve lifestyle.”
Richard Martin. Cubism and fashion. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999 (p. 129)