SKU: 85707717693
josephine baker gold dress

josephine baker gold dress Baker, Josephine. (1906–1975)] Banana Belt and Headdress, worn at the – Schubertiade Music and Arts

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josephine baker gold dress Baker, Josephine. (1906–1975)] Banana Belt and Headdress, worn at the – Schubertiade Music and ArtsTwo iconic items from the celebrated entertainer, including one of her famous banana belts, this example circa 1930 1950 with gold sequins on the side, apparently worn by her at the Casino de Paris. Former ORTF, SFP Collection. The belt is in heavily worn but stable condition. Ten banana forms are attached, presumably of a larger original number, to a yellow fabric strip. Remnants of sequin detailing remain though most have perished. The filled gold

Two iconic items from the celebrated entertainer, including one of her famous banana belts, this example circa 1930-1950 with gold sequins on the side, apparently worn by her at the Casino de Paris. Former ORTF, SFP Collection.

The belt is in heavily worn but stable condition. Ten banana forms are attached, presumably of a larger original number, to a yellow fabric strip. Remnants of sequin detailing remain though most have perished. The filled gold fabric forms are mostly in stable condition with some creases and small tears and loose threads around the seams.  10 x 14 x 1 inches. Provenance: Former ORTF, SFP Collection. Truly, one of the most iconic items in performance history. 

Sold together with an extraordinary fruit turban headdress with rhinestones and pearls, also from the collection of Josephine Baker.  Inscribed to label with inventory number and the ORTF insignia, "Achat Granier - Joséphine Baker, 30163 OJ83." The painted fruits with significant chipping and some losses, some elements partially loose but stable overall. 27 x 22 x 15 inches. Provenance: Former ORTF, SFP Collection.  One of the extraordinarily elaborate feather and fruit headpieces which were part of the performer's signature costumes. 

Baker was most noted as a singer, while in her early career she was a celebrated dancer. She was given the nicknames the "Black Venus" or the "Black Pearl", as well as the "Créole Goddess" in anglophone nations, while in France she has always been known in the old theatrical tradition as "La Baker." Around 1930, she "began a long and successful collaboration with the Casino de Paris. The Casino was not as famous as the Folies Bergère, but it was still a first-class music hall. Its seasonal productions were extremely lavish, and in no time, Baker re-established herself as the leading star of the Parisian stage." (Alan Schroeder, "Josephine Baker: Entertainer," p. 48)

The Office de radiodiffusion-télévision française (ORTF; lit. 'French Broadcasting and Television Office'), was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1975, with providing public radio and television in France. When ORTF was divided into 7 smaller organizations, the SFP (Société Française de Production) took control of some of the archives. 

"The image of a dancing Josephine Baker, clad in pasties and a skirt made from replica bananas, is something of a cultural icon. However, today, the skirt’s meaning is very different than when Baker first wore it in 1926. Baker donned the revealing–and according to certain early 1900s moralists, ‘degrading’–skirt when she was still making a name for herself on the international stage. Her performances in the skirt soon gained her fame and fortune that she then used to fight Nazis in France and structural racism in America. As a performer, Baker used her sexuality and hyper awareness of image to manipulate her audience’s sexist and racist fantasies, and deployed them to build a platform for herself to dismantle the very social systems and cultural beliefs that they stemmed from.

Baker’s La Danse Sauvage quickly made her the star of La Revue Nègre. She appeared almost naked, clad mostly in feathers, swinging her hips as her equally exposed partner Joe Alex beat a drum. With rhythmic thrusts and sensual sways, Baker’s movements embodied the sexual language anthropologists projected onto nonwhite bodies. Her audience loved it. “In the short pas de deux of the savages, which came as the finale of the Revue Nègre, there was a wild splendor and magnificent animality,” performance attendee and dance critic André Levinson said. “The plastic sense of a race of sculptors came to life and the frenzy of African Eros swept over the audience. It was no longer a grotesque dancing girl that stood before them, but the black Venus that haunted Baudelaire.”

Only a year later, the dancer donned her famous banana skirt for Folies-Bergére’s civility/primitivism-themed La Folie du Jour. Sixteen rubber bananas hung from a low-slung belt around the dancer’s waist. Along with matching pearl necklaces and jewels, the iconic costume brilliantly appeased and critiqued her audience’s most lurid fantasies. The skirt’s phallic appendages evoked France’s colonial involvement in both the rubber and banana trades. It seemed to present Baker as a colonial sex object, but in doing so highlighted the exploitative nature of the economic and political orders that made her one. Plus, the allegory-loaded skirt’s silhouette subverted ballet’s proper tutu.

Baker was not the only performer on the nightclub circuit to perform African-inspired dances or wear revealing clothing, but she possessed a unique understanding of the racial and power dynamics underlying Paris’ obsession with jazz. She was “a creature neither infrahuman nor superhuman but somehow both,” American poet E.E. Cummings wrote. “A mysterious unkillable Something, equally nonprimitive and uncivilized, or beyond time in the sense that emotion is beyond arithmetic.” Baker embodied an ever-changing character that audience members like Cummings hoped to simultaneously dominate, tame, and embody. " (Courtney DeLong, CR Fashion Book, "Remembering Josephine Baker's Cultural Impact, Banana Skirt, and Beyond")

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Anastasia Goygova
Houston, US
★★★★★ 4
Fallen for the Fallen Angel – A Guilty Pleasure Worth Every Page
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There’s something deeply irresistible about a dark academia or trial-based setting, a brooding and arrogant fallen angel, and a fierce heroine with enough sass to go toe-to-toe with him. Wings So Wicked is exactly that kind of book—and I devoured it in just a couple of days. To be fair, the plot isn’t groundbreaking. If you’re looking for something fresh and innovative in terms of storyline, this might not be it. But if your reader heart beats faster at the mere mention of enemies-to-lovers, jealousy-fueled banter, magical trials, betrayals, and forbidden tension—you’ll feel right at home. It’s like catnip for those of us with this particular weakness. The chemistry between the leads could have used a slightly slower burn to make the tension sizzle longer, but I still found myself completely invested in their dynamic. There are moments and phrases that feel a bit cheesy or underdeveloped, but honestly? I didn’t care. The vibes were exactly what I wanted. This book isn’t trying to reinvent the genre—it’s here to give readers like me what we crave: high-stakes magical drama, angsty romance, and the thrill of watching a badass girl and her brooding counterpart clash and spark. If that sounds like your kind of story, Wings So Wicked will hit the mark. Here’s hoping Book 2 turns up the heat and keeps the magic alive.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2025
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Madi lohr
Chelsea, US
★★★★★ 5
my new favorite book
Format: Kindle
Ok so I never write reviews but this book was so good I felt the need to write this. Firstly your introduced to Huntyr you see her closed off hard core badass than towards the end you see the most subtle change and growth it’s amazing and the enemies to friends to lovers was just perfect, AND THE TWIST AT THE END GOT ME GOOD! You see one spicy scene the whole book but it doesn’t even MATTER BECAUSE THE BOOK WAS THAT GOOD. I’ve read 85 books in 2023-2024 so far and I’m pround to say this is my all time favorite. I’m so excited to read more of Emily Blackwoods books, this was my first time reading one of hers and I’m glad I did because HOLY!! Well done Emily well done
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Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2024
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Robin
Lowell, US
★★★★★ 4
Fast paced romantasy you will not want to put down!
Format: Kindle
4.25 stars! I LOVED this book with similar vibes to Hush Hush, Fourth Wing, and The Serpent and the Wings of Night! It was fast paced with easy world building and will keep you turning the pages late into the night because you will not want to put it down! Huntyr is a fierce bad@ss FMC trained to kill vampyres her entire life. She is sent on a mission to go to the academy and earn her spot into The Golden City. Upon arrival, she is forced to room with the delicious fallen angel, Wolf, who is the only one who knows about her assassin identity. The romance, the plot twists, the secrets revealed, the battles, and the tantalizing training scenes had me hooked! And that ending…. I’m holding my breath in need to know hell! Read if you love: 🪽 Fae, Vampyres, Fallen Angels 🪽 Academy setting with magical trials 🪽 Forced proximity and slow burn 🪽 Rivals to lovers 🪽 Hidden identities and secrets 🪽 Tend your wounds “𝘖𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶. 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥.” “𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘴, 𝘏𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘴𝘬.” “𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘮𝘺 𝘷𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘴, 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶.”
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Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2024
B
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Bernadette Smith
Lexington, US
★★★★★ 5
Excellent Rivals to Lovers!!
Format: Kindle
The tension and banter between Huntyr and Wold was delectable. I absolutely love the fallen angel and all of his flaws. Huntyr is amazing too being a badass FMC with some major trauma. The world building was great and I enjoyed the training aspect of the story. The writing was immersive and was in the story the whole time. The ending had quite a twist that I hadn’t anticipated and made my jaw DROP. Excellent job! I also loved the narration. Laura is one of my fave narrators!
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Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2025
E
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❈ Elizabeth ❈ | Breakawayreads
San Leandro, US
★★★★★ 5
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Format: Kindle
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Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2024

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