GENDER NEUTRAL
Una, Lady Troubridge • 1924 • Romaine Brooks • Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
How Yohji Yamamoto found inspiration in the androgynous style, black, grey and white tonal color palette, and overall aesthetic of American artist Romaine Brooks’ 1924 oil on canvas portrait of Lady Una Toubridge for his Spring 2007 Collection... In a letter to her friend, Brooks described the Symbolist portrait as a glimpse of the New Woman — “a sign of the age which may amuse future feminists,” - an absolutely befitting motif for a designer who continues to master the wardrobe for today’s modern woman...
Una Troubridge was a British aristocrat, literary translator, and the lover of Radclyffe Hall, author of the 1928 pathbreaking lesbian novel, The Well of Loneliness. Troubridge appears with a sense of formality and importance typical of upper-class portraiture, but with the sitter’s prized dachshunds in place of the traditional hunting dog. Troubridge’s impeccably tailored clothing, cravat, and bobbed hair convey the fashionable and daring androgyny associated with the so-called new woman. Her monocle suggested multiple symbolic associations to contemporary British audiences: it alluded to Troubridge’s upper-class status, her Englishness, her sense of rebellion, and possibly her lesbian identity... The tailored man’s morning suit conceals her feminine figure, and her pose suggests absolute control • C. 1924 • Smithsonian American Art Museum
Lady Troubridge wearing a monocle and posing with her Dachshund that won first prize in the dog show • Early 20th Century • England
Romaine Brooks was an American painter who worked mostly in Paris and Capri. She specialized in portraiture and used a subdued grey tonal color palette. Her subjects ranged from anonymous models to titled aristocrats and is best known for her images of women in androgynous or masculine dress, including her self-portrait of 1923. After becoming dissatisfied with the bright color schemes that she had used in her early paintings, she travelled to St. Ives on the Cornish coast, rented a small studio, and began learning to create finer gradations of gray. From then on, nearly all of her paintings were keyed to a gray, white and black color scheme with touches and tints of ochre, umber, alizarin and teal.
Detail of Una, Lady Troubridge • 1924 • Romaine Brooks • Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
Lady Troubridge posing with her dogs • Early 20th Century • Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections, The University of Texas, Austin
Portrait of Lady Troubridge • Circa 1915 • Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections, The University of Texas, Austin
Portrait of Lady Troubridge • Circa 1916 • England
Portrait of Lady Troubridge • Circa 1915 • Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections, The University of Texas, Austin
Lady Troubridge posing with her Dachshund • Early 20th Century • Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections, The University of Texas, Austin
Una, Lady Troubridge • 1924 • Romaine Brooks • Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
Lady Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall with their Dachshunds Fitz-John Wotan and Fitz-John Thorgils of Tredholt at Crufts Dog Show • 1923 • Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections, The University of Texas, Austin
Portrait of Lady Troubridge • Early 20th Century • Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections, The University of Texas, Austin
Lady Troubridge posing with her Dachshunds • Circa 1923 • Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections, The University of Texas, Austin
Lady Troubridge posing with her Dachshund • Early 20th Century • Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections, The University of Texas, Austin
Lady Troubridge posing with her Dachshund • Early 20th Century • Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections, The University of Texas, Austin
Detail of Una, Lady Troubridge • 1924 • Romaine Brooks • Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
Lady Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall • March 21, 1934 • Tatler • Image courtesy of The British Newspaper Archive
Lady Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall • November 13, 1935 • Tatler • Image courtesy of The Trials of Radclyffe Hall by Diana Souhami
Lady Troubridge and Miss Radclyffe Hall at home at 37 Holland Street • August 1927 • Image courtesy of The Trials of Radclyffe Hall by Diana Souhami
Lady Troubridge posing with one of her dogs • Early 20th Century • Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections, The University of Texas, Austin
Ensemble from the Spring / Summer 2007 Collection • Gift of Yohji Yamamoto Inc. for the 2019 Gender Bending Fashion Exhibition • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Lady Troubridge posing with her Dachshunds • Circa 1923 • Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections, The University of Texas, Austin
Lady Troubridge and Radclyffe Hall attending the French Bulldog show • March 28, 1928 • Marylebone Hall, London
Self-Portrait • 1923 • Romaine Brooks • Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
Lady Troubridge and Miss Radclyffe Hall with their Dachshunds • August 23, 1923 • The Queen • Image courtesy of The Trials of Radclyffe Hall by Diana Souhami
Lady Troubridge posing with her Dachshund • Early 20th Century • Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections, The University of Texas, Austin
Una, Lady Troubridge • 1924 • Romaine Brooks • Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
