Fashioning simultaneous migrations: Sonia Delaunay and inter-war Romanian connections

Abstract

This article analyses the connections between the worlds of fine art and fashion through the complex interconnections between the Parisian-Eastern European creative exile. It follows the common threads between Ukrainian-Jewish artist and fashion designer Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979) and prominent inter-war Parisian Romanians: namely, Tristan Tzara, Constantin Brâncuși and Lizica Codreanu. I suggest the concept of ‘simultaneous migrations’ to illustrate fashion’s mobility beyond and across cultural differences, identities and aesthetics through Sonia Delaunay’s philosophy of Simultaneity, focusing on her inter-war Romanian connections in Paris. The research bridges across the fields of fashion studies, art history and cultural studies, in order to explicate the synapses that shed light on Sonia Delaunay’s ideas of Simultaneity and colour theories to Paris as an ideological, cultural, artistic and identity hub.