This short test film consists of 38 shots of actress Hope Hampton (and one shot of what appears to be a stuffed peacock!) standing against a dark, nondescript backdrop, and occasionally a small set of steps, as she models various fashionable items of clothing by top Parisian haute couture labels. What raises the film above the realm of banality is the fact that it was shot in colour using Eastman Kodak’s subtractive two-colour Kodachrome process. Not to be confused with the later colour reversal process of the same name, two-colour Kodachrome quickly proved non-viable as a colour process for commercial motion picture production, and its use was restricted to short subjects and colour inserts in blackand- white features. Yet in this example, despite its apparent technical limitations, the process manages to bring the designs – by Boué Soeurs, Drécoll, Lanvin, Lucien Lelong, Jean Magnin, Martial et Armand, Jean Patou, Paul Poiret, Vionnet and others – vividly to life.

Oliver Hanley