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Dress

The Journal of the Costume Society of America

ISSN: 0361-2112 (Print) 2042-1729 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ydre20

“A woman with a hundred faces”

Gwendolyn M. Michel

To cite this article: Gwendolyn M. Michel (2019): “A woman with a hundred faces”, Dress, DOI:
10.1080/03612112.2019.1641994

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/03612112.2019.1641994

Published online: 26 Sep 2019.

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1

The Stella Blum Student Research Grant is awarded to an undergraduate or graduate student
for original research in the field of North American costume. The grant, first awarded in 1987,
is named in honor of Stella Blum (1916–1985), a costume curator, educator, writer, scholar, and
founding member and Fellow of the Costume Society of America.

“A woman with
a hundred faces”
The Dress and Appearance of
Anaïs Nin, 1931–1932
Gwendolyn M. Michel

Gwendolyn M. Michel is an independent researcher, designer, and educator. She holds a PhD in
Apparel, Merchandising, and Design from Iowa State University and an MS in Textiles from
University of California, Davis. She has taught at Ohio University; University of California, Davis;
California State University; and Monterey Peninsula College.
This study was generously funded
through the Stella Blum Student
Author and diarist Anaïs Nin was an important figure in feminist literary circles in the 1960s and 1970s. Research Grant sponsored by the
Costume Society of America Endowment.
Her diaries, first published in the 1960s, began with her life in France in the early 1930s. The wife of a Special thanks to CSA Committee Chair
banker, she lived a comfortable life, free to pursue her writing and bohemian living, including writing Dr. Ann Wass; Dr. Sara Marcketti, the
faculty advisor of this doctoral research;
extensively on her use of dress to distinguish herself. This report presents the first in-depth examination and Christina Bates, editor of DRESS, as
of Nin’s 1930s diaries and related primary sources from the perspective of dress history and calls for well as the Department of Special
Collections of the Library of University of
further research into the dress practices of this important literary figure of the twentieth century. California, Los Angeles and the Donohue
Rare Book Room of the Gleeson Library,
Keywords Anaïs Nin, 1930s, Paris, Henry Miller, June Mansfield Miller, bohemian dress University of San Francisco.

© Costume Society of America 2019 DOI 10.1080/03612112.2019.1641994


2 DRESS 2019

1 Anaïs Nin, Diary 30, 293, entry of April There was once a woman who had one hundred faces. She showed one
20, 1931, Anaïs Nin Collection,
Collection #2066, Department of face to each person, and so it took one hundred men to write
Special Collections, Charles E. Young
Research Library, University of her biography.1
California, Los Angeles.
TWENTIETH-CENTURY AUTHOR Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) (FIGURE 1) was well known in the 1960s
2 See Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin,
Volume 1: 1931–1934, ed. Gunther and 1970s for her series of diaries revealing her life as a writer and detailing her life in
Stuhlmann (San Diego, CA: Harvest/ 1930s Paris and New York; 1940s New York; and 1950s New York, California, and
Swallow Press & Harcourt, 1966); Nin,
The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume 2: Mexico.2 These diaries, heavily edited, presented Nin as a self-supporting writer, part of an
1934–1939, ed. Stuhlmann (San Diego,
CA: Harvest/Swallow Press &
international literary and artistic coterie that included authors, artists, and film-makers.
Harcourt Brace, 1967); and Nin, The Nin—the bohemian diarist and author—lived a life centered around art, beauty, and the
Diary of Anaïs Nin, Volume 3:
1939–1944, ed. Stuhlmann (New York: development of her craft.3 In the 1980s, however, Nin’s second husband Rupert Pole
Harvest/Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1969).
(1919–2006) published the first of a series of unexpurgated editions of Nin’s Paris diaries,
Henry and June, revealing some of what had been omitted from publication in the 1960s
3 See Elizabeth Wilson, Bohemians: The
Glamorous Outcasts (New Brunswick, and 1970s editions of The Diary of Anaïs Nin. This unexpurgated edition revealed Nin to
NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000); have been a bourgeois housewife whose bohemian adventures and, indirectly, her lover Henry
Anita Jarczok, Writing an Icon:
Celebrity Culture and the Invention of Miller (1891–1980) were supported by her first husband, banker Hugh Parker Guiler
Anaïs Nin (Athens, OH: Swallow (1898–1985) (FIGURE 2). In addition to new information on Nin’s dress and appearance, the
Press, 2017).
unexpurgated series of diaries revealed the intimacy of Nin’s relationship with American author

FIGURE 1 Anaïs Nin by Natasha Troubetskoia, ca. 1932. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
“A woman with a hundred faces” 3

FIGURE 2 Anaïs Nin and Hugh P. Guiler on board the SS Mauretania, May 1928, returning to Paris after 4 See Nin, Henry and June, from a
visiting New York. Courtesy of the Anaïs Nin Trust. Journal of Love: The Unexpurgated
Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1931–1932
(Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 1986); Nin,
Incest, from a Journal of Love: The
Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin,
1932–1934 (San Diego, CA: Harvest/
Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1992); and Nin,
Trapeze: The Unexpurgated Diary of
Anaïs Nin, 1947–1955 (San Antonio,
TX: Sky Blue Press, 2017).

5 See Jarczok, Writing an Icon, 205–12;


and Helen Tookey, Anaïs Nin,
Fictionality and Femininity: Playing a
Thousand Roles (Oxford: Oxford
University, 2003), 195–99.

6 Sady Doyle, “Before Lena Dunham,


There Was Anaïs Nin—Now Patron
Saint of Social Media,” The Guardian,
April 7, 2015, http://www.theguar-
dian.com/culture/2015/apr/07/anais-
nin-author-social-media.

7 Tove Hermanson, “The Deforming


Mirror: Anaïs Nin’s Fractured Identity
as Read Through Fashion,” Thread for
Thought (blog), September 29, 2010,
http://www.threadforthought.net/
deforming-mirror-anais-nins-frac-
tured-identity-read-fashion/; Kim
Krizan, “Anaïs Style: The Birth of a
Lifelong Passion,” A Cafe in Space: The
Anaïs Literary Journal 8 (2011): 11–119.
Krizan’s paper, though not peer-
reviewed, focused on Nin’s writings
on dress as recorded in her published
diaries kept from ages eleven to
Henry Miller, among others, adult incest with her father, abortions, and a double life concealing seventeen. See Nin, Linotte: The Early
Diary of Anaïs Nin, 1914–1920 (San
a bigamous marriage lasting for the last thirty years of her life.4 Despite, or perhaps because of, Diego, CA: Harvest/Harcourt
Brace, 1978).
her problematic past that had been previously hidden from the public, her works’ international
fan base continues.5 Nin’s work and image have become the subjects of popular internet memes, 8 Hermanson, “The Deforming Mirror,”
paragraph 1.
and she has been dubbed “the patron saint of social media.”6
9 Nin as quoted by Krizan, “Anaïs
Until now, dress scholars have not examined Nin’s dress in depth, except a blog post Style,” 111.
about an unpublished conference presentation by dress scholar Tove Hermanson and a 10 Anaïs Nin Collection, Collection
short paper by Nin scholar and screenwriter Kim Krizan.7 Hermanson’s work highlighted #2066 (specifically, Diaries 32–36),
Anaïs Nin Collection, Donohue Rare
the ways that Nin used dress to “cloak [the] dark side” of her personality, seduce others, Book Room, Gleeson Library,
and protect herself from unwanted advances.8 Krizan examined Nin’s earliest diary entries University of San Francisco; Wambly
Bald, On The Left Bank: 1929–1933,
from 1914 to 1920, begun when Nin emigrated from Spain to America with her mother ed. Benjamin Franklin (Athens: Ohio
University Press, 1987); Kenneth C.
and brothers, following her father’s abandonment of the family. Krizan wrote of Nin’s use Dick, Henry Miller: Colossus of One
of dress as part of the diary-keeping practice that began while emigrating as a means for (Sittard, The Netherlands: Alberts,
1967); Nin and Henry Miller, A
making “life more . . . bearable if [she] looked at it as an adventure and a tale.”9 Neither Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin
and Henry Miller, 1932–1953, ed.
work, however, examined primary sources. This work develops both papers by inventorying Stuhlmann (San Diego, CA: Harvest/
primary and secondary source data in depth from the perspective of dress history. Nin’s Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987).

diaries, dating from 1914 through 1966, are in the care of the Department of Special 11 Rupert Pole, “Preface,” in Nin, Henry
and June, ix. See Pole and John
Collections in the Charles E. Young Research Library at the University of California, Los Ferrone, “The Making of Henry and
Angeles. This report provides the first detailed summary and description of material on the June, The Book: Correspondence
1985–1986,” A Cafe in Space 4, 8–21.
dress and appearance of Anaïs Nin found in primary sources, with special focus on the ori- Further, although the book is titled
Henry and June, referring to Henry
ginal diaries that were the source of the content in Henry and June: The Unexpurgated Diary and June Miller, it focuses on other
of Anaïs Nin, 1931–1932 plus other primary and secondary sources.10 This specific period significant relationships in Nin’s life,
including her marriage to Hugh P.
was chosen because it was a pivotal period in Nin’s professional and private writing and in Guiler (“Hugo” in the book, later
known as the experimental film-
the lives of Nin, her husband, and Henry Miller. To underscore this, when selecting which maker Ian Hugo), her relationship
of her diaries to publish, Nin herself “chose to begin in 1931, her most interesting and dra- with her cousin Eduardo Sanchez, her
psychoanalysis with Dr. Rene Allendy,
matic period, when she had just met Henry and June Miller.”11 Nin was inspired by June and her relationship with Henry
Miller’s flatmate Alfred “Fred” Perles.
Mansfield Miller’s (1902–1979) bohemian style and quickly fell in love with her face, figure, Soon after publication, the book
and seemingly careless way of dressing. Enamored of June Miller that winter, Nin briefly inspired the 1990 film Henry and
June from Universal Pictures, further
emulated her “shabby,” bohemian style and even felt herself coming to look and sound like
4 DRESS 2019

indication that the events of the FIGURE 3 June Miller, early 1930s. Courtesy of the Anaïs Nin Trust.
period comprised a compel-
ling narrative.

12 “Did any woman ever wear shabby


shoes, a shabby black dress, a
shabby dark blue cape and an old
violet hat as she wore them?” Diary
32, 142, entry of January 8, 1932.
“When I talk I feel her in me. I feel
my voice heavier, and my face heav-
ier. I am aware of her in me. Facially,
I feel altered. A foreign presence.”
Diary 32, 151, entry of January 8, 1932.
For an indepth examination of bohe-
mian dress see Elizabeth Wilson,
Bohemians: The Glamorous Outcasts
(New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press, 2000).

13 As Anaïs Nin’s married name was


Anaïs Nin Guiler, where I refer to her
and her husband as a married couple,
it is as “The Guilers.” Many of Nin’s
diaries have a section near the back her.12 Soon after, however, she found that she preferred her wardrobe with the tidiness
titled “Journal of Facts,” several pages and good repair that being the wife of a bourgeois banker afforded (FIGURE 2) and at the
on which Nin listed social and various
other events in her life, day by day. same time found new confidence in her body image and appearance, thanks in part to her
Diary 32’s “Journal of Facts” is on four
unnumbered pages at the end of the relationship with Henry Miller. Primary and related secondary sources provide insight for
diary and helped establish an accurate dress historians about the role Nin’s dress practices played in the life of this complicated
timeline of events in Nin’s life in the
months of December 1931 and January woman and author.
1932. In passages quoted from their
respective journals, Nin and her hus-
band Hugh P. Guiler’s spelling and
punctuation have been reproduced as “She was color, brilliance, strangeness”
written by the authors. The Guilers
met Henry Miller on December 5, 1931.
“Dec. 5 [1931]—[Richard] Osborn &
In the early 1930s, Anais and her husband shared a home with Nin’s mother, Rosa Culmell
Henry Miller for lunch.” Diary 32, on Nin (1871–1954) and younger brother, Joaquın Nin-Culmell (1908–2004), in Louveciennes,
the second page of the “Journal of
Facts.” Nin and Henry Miller’s relation- France. In early December 1931, the Guilers met the then-unknown American writer Henry
ship would last for well over a decade, Miller; Henry introduced his wife June Miller (FIGURE 3) to Nin in late December and to
and Nin provided the capital needed
to publish Miller’s first book. Henry Guiler in early January 1932.13 A few weeks after meeting Henry Miller, Nin invited the
Miller, Tropic of Cancer (Paris: Obelisk
Press, 1934); No€el Riley Fitch, Anaïs:
Millers to dinner.14 The following day, Nin described her first impressions of June Miller: “Her
The Erotic Life of Anaïs Nin (New York: beauty drowned me. As I sat in front of her I felt distinctly that I would do anything mad for
Back Bay Books, 1994), 136, 148, 171.
her, anything she asked of me. Miller faded. She was color, brilliance, strangeness.”15
14 “Dec. 29—hair done—errands—
Dinner f. [for] Miller & June,” on the
third unnumbered page of Nin’s
“Journal of Facts” at the end of “My absence of . . . fullness, makes me less loved than I want to be”
Diary 32. Deirdre Bair wrote that
Guiler was present when Nin and
June Miller met for the first time,
Like many women, Nin struggled with body image and self-esteem relating to her dress
Anaïs Nin: A Biography, 127. and appearance. Body image, being the “mental picture we hold of our bodies as well as
However, Guiler had been away on
business, having left for Holland on our affective response to it,” has long been recognized as a component of dress by dress
December 27, 1931 and returned scholars.16 In the period addressed by this study, Nin’s body image was such that she
home on December 31, 1931. Nin met
June Miller for the first time on perceived herself to be unattractively thin. She was concerned that her body’s slimness
December 29, 1931, when she invited
the Millers to dinner; Henry Miller
was unattractive and feared that men found full-figured women more attractive
introduced his wife to Guiler when (FIGURE 4).17 She envied June Miller and other women she perceived to be curvaceous
the Millers dined at Nin and Guiler’s
home on January 2, 1932 before the and strong.18 She felt that if she could gain weight, she would feel her self-confidence
two couples went to the theatre in in her appearance enhanced, as larger breasts and hips would make her
Paris (source: third unnumbered
page of “Journal of Facts,” Diary 32). appear womanly.
15 Diary 32, 123, entry of December At the urging of her cousin, Eduardo Sanchez (1904–1986), Nin began seeing his psy-
30, 1931. choanalyst in Paris, Dr. Rene Allendy. With Dr. Allendy, Nin discussed her relationships
16 Nancy A. Rudd and Sharron J. with Sanchez, her husband, and Henry Miller and her struggles with self-confidence
Lennon, “Body Image: Linking
Aesthetics and Social Psychology of
and body image. When Dr. Allendy asked Nin to describe her greatest fears, she
Appearance,” Clothing and Textiles revealed her concerns of physical inadequacy: “the realization, or doubt that my
Research Journal 19, no. 3
(2001), 120–33. absence of health and physical developement [sic], fullness, makes me less loved than
17 “It seemed to me that men only
I want to be.”19 Dr. Allendy pointed out that Nin’s slim figure was, for its era,
loved healthy and fat women. attractive (FIGURES 5 and 6). Rather than being reassured, however, Nin perceived
Eduardo talked to me about fat
his observation as hackneyed flattery:
“A woman with a hundred faces” 5

FIGURE 4 
Anaïs Nin by Emil Savitry, Paris, 1936. Courtesy of Francis Dupont. Cuban girls. Hugh’s first attraction
was for a fat girl. Everybody used to
comment on my slenderness and
Mother quoted the Spanish proverb:
bones only for the dogs. When I
went to Havana I doubted my being
able to please because I was thin.
This theme continues right down to
the moment when Henry hurt me by
his admiration of Natasha's
[Troubetskoia] body because such a
‘body seemed rich to him.’” Diary 34,
95–96, undated entry between April
25 and May 4, 1932.

18 “I am only unhappy as a woman.


And even more so since I have
known June who has everything that
I do not have: the sensual voice, the
physical richness, the abnormal vigor
and endurance.” Diary 34, 124, entry
of May 4, 1932.

19 Diary 34, 124, entry of May 4, 1932.

20 Diary 34, 124–25, entry of May


4, 1932.

21 Diary 34, 289, undated entry


between May 29 and June 1, 1932.

22 Diary 34, 290, undated entry


between May 29 and June 1, 1932.

23 Diary 35, 70–71, undated entry


between June 27 and July 6, 1932.

24 Diary 35, 71, undated entry between


June 27 and July 6, 1932.

[Dr. Allendy asked:] Do you realize how many women envy you your silhouette?—(This
kind of assurances I have often received. It is not the kind which heals; or I would be
healed. I know he must find a more profound way of communicating confidence to me—
Now he is talking as men talk to me.)20
When Nin discussed June Miller and Nin’s desire to play the role of femme fatale, Dr.
Allendy told her that this was a “game that was not really natural to [Nin]” (FIGURE 4).21
He encouraged Nin to find her “true self,” saying, “I do not despair yet of reconciling you
to your own image.”22 As they analyzed her appearance, Nin concluded that she used dra-
matic dress (FIGURES 1 and 7) as an “armor,” one that she wore both to Dr. Allendy’s
office and to bohemian Montparnasse with Henry Miller:
It was a mask. Aggressively dazzling in self-protection. The first day I came to see Allendy I
wore a draped costume and a byzantine [sic] hat, and I succeeded in intimidating him by my
strangeness. . . . A desire to be more interesting, more accentuated. A role. I played the role
of a sophistication which was not truly my own. In all this he seemed so right. I began to
see how much of an armour my costumes had been. I remembered that to please Henry I
wear for him softer and more youthful things, and that I hated when he decided to take me
to Montparnasse to meet people in these puerile clothes. I wanted so much my draperies
and Russian hat. Like an armour!23
Dr. Allendy’s opinion was that this use of bohemian dress as “armor” was a sign that
Nin had “lost her true rhythm.”24 When asked what her “true rhythm” was, Dr. Allendy
was hesitant to pronounce judgment but averred that, “As far as he could see, from
6 DRESS 2019

25 Diary 35, 71, undated entry between FIGURE 6 Anaïs Nin, Paris, 1926. Courtesy of the
June 27 and July 6, 1932. FIGURE 5 Anaïs Nin, 1929. Courtesy of the
Anaïs Nin Trust. Anaïs Nin Trust.
26 “She had said she wanted nothing
from me but the perfume I wore,
and my wine colored handkerchief.
But I had insisted and she had
promised to let me buy her the san-
dal shoes. I made her go to the
Ladies room. I opened my bag. I
pulled out a pair of sheer stockings.
‘Put them on.’ I pleaded and apolo-
gized at the same time. She obeyed.
Meanwhile I opened the bottle of
perfume. ‘Put some on.’” Diary 32,
160–61, undated entry between
January 9 and January 16, 1932. “And
not knowing what else to say I
spread on the bench, between her
and me, the wine colored handker-
chief she wanted, my coral ear-rings
which she had looked for in shops,
[and] my turquoise green ring.’”
Diary 32, 163, undated entry
between January 9 and January
16, 1932.

27 Diary 32, 147, entry of January


8, 1932.

28 Diary 33, 89, entry of February


29, 1932.

29 “She gave me her very own silver


bracelet with a cat’s eye stone—so
symbolical of her—when she has so
few possessions. I refused at first,
and then the joy of wearing her
bracelet, a part of her, filled me. I
carry it like a symbol. It is precious
to me.” Diary 32, 178, undated entry
between January 9 and January
16, 1932. studying me, I was fundamentally an exotic, Cuban woman, with charm and simplicity and
30 Diary 32, 190, undated entry purity—very feminine and soft.”25 Everything else, Dr. Allendy said, was Nin playing a role
between January 9 and January
16, 1932. that was not her “true self.”

“And she needs shoes, stockings, gloves, underwear!”


Knowing Miller’s wife was due to return to New York in late January 1932, Nin expressed
that she wanted to give her a parting gift. In fact, the gifts Nin gave to her were all items
of dress and adornment: perfume, stockings, sandals, earrings, a ring, and a handkerchief,
underscoring the importance of dress and physical appearance to Nin.26 June Miller was
not shy in either dropping thinly veiled hints or asking outright for things that she wanted
(FIGURE 8). She made multiple requests and either asked directly for, or was in obvious
need of, various articles of dress, as Nin relates:
She says she wants to keep the rose dress I wore the first night she saw me. When I
tell her I want to give her a going away present she says she wants some of that
perfume she smelled in my house—to evoke memories. And she needs shoes,
stockings, gloves, underwear!27
Nin would later send June Miller a cape.28 Nin received a bracelet but nothing else in
exchange.29 Despite this lack of reciprocity, the exchange of gifts between the two women
was highly symbolic to Nin, who felt the intimacy of shared articles of dress affected
the wearer in dramatic ways. “I told her how her bracelet clutched my wrist like her very
fingers, held me in barbaric slavery. She wants my cape to wrap around her body.”30

“Each time I would clamber out to silk stockings and perfume”


As for many women of the time, stockings were an essential part of everyday dress for
Nin (FIGURE 6). However, June Miller frequently went without stockings, but on at
“A woman with a hundred faces” 7

FIGURE 7 Anaïs Nin in Spanish dance costume, FIGURE 8 June Miller, early 1930s. Courtesy of 31 Decades later, she corroborated con-
early 1930s. Courtesy of the Anaïs Nin Trust. the Anaïs Nin Trust. temporary accounts, affirming that
she “never wore stockings, my legs
were beautiful enough—if I couldn’t
afford the best stockings I wore
none. In fact[,] it was I who started
the fashion for bare legs,” Dick,
Henry Miller: Colossus of One, 120.
“No stockings because she had no
money for stockings.” Diary 32, 249,
entry of February 1, 1932. “There is
something inconsistent about a vel-
vet cape, shantung dress and no
stockings.” Bald, On the Left Bank,
89. “I saw she wore ugly cotton
stockings, and it hurt me to see June
in cotton stockings.” Diary 32, 158,
entry of January 9, 1932.

32 Diary 32, 160–61, undated entry


between January 9 and January
16, 1932.

33 “Feeling when June wore the open-


work lacy black stockings I gave her,
of the Maja Desnuda of Goya.” Diary
33, 71, undated entry between
February 21 and February 25, 1932.

34 “Or when I lay in the bed and he


[Eduardo Sanchez] admired my
Goyescan stockings.” Diary 33, 163,
entry of March 18, 1932. “Isn’t there
art too in my choice of . . . Goyescan
stockings.” Diary 33, 164, entry of
March 18, 1932. Nin might, however,
have been referring to Maja
Desnuda’s partner painting, de
Goya’s Maja Vestida.

35 “Henry crawling to find my black silk


garters which had fallen behind the
bed.” Diary 33, 132, undated entry
least one occasion, she wore cotton ones when visiting Paris in January 1932.31 Nin between March 11 and March
18, 1932.
gave her a pair of sheer stockings before taking her shopping for sandals, insisting she
don them before they lunched and shopped together.32 Nin later described the stock- 36 Diary 32, 232–33, undated entry
between January 25 and February
ings as not just sheer but black lace.33 Nin favored this style herself, feeling these 1, 1932.
stockings were evocative of a painting, Maja Desnuda by Francisco de Goya, and 37 “So I sit on the coral rug, with all
referred to them as “Goyescan.”34 Her 1932 diaries included numerous mentions of my stockings spread on the floor,
and I pick out with delight two pairs
her stockings, sometimes black lace, worn with black silk garters. 35 She included of flesh stockings which have not
yet been mended. Shall I wear one
silk stockings in a list of “beautiful and good things” that she considered necessary today? Not today. I look at the calen-
dar. On that day I will wear it. I have
in life: set aside a holiday, for the sake of
anticipation.” Nin, The Early Diary of
I might be thrown into the slumps a hundred times and each time I would clamber out Anaïs Nin, Volume 4, 1927–1931, 397,
again to good coffee, on lacquered trays, by the side of an open fire. Each time I would entry of March 6, 1931. “Yes, I want
very sheer stockings, but not flesh
clamber out to silk stockings and perfume. Absolute luxury is not a necessity to me, but colored, sort of smoke color, not
beautiful and good things are.36 pearl grey either, you know; they are
being worn darker.” Letter from
Anaïs Nin Guiler to her mother,
Nin wore what she called flesh- and smoke-colored stockings and would wear mended September 2, 1932, University of San
stockings when needed.37 In August 1932, after wearing mended stockings so she could Francisco, Gleeson Library, Donohue
Rare Book Room, Anaïs Nin
save money to spend on gifts for Henry Miller, Nin was greatly perturbed when he gave Collection, Container 2, Folder 24. “I
see . . . a mend in my stockings.”
away her “best pair” of stockings to Alfred “Fred” Perles’s underage girlfriend.38 Diary 34, 240, undated entry
between May 25 and May 27, 1932.

38 “He gave Paulette, out of soft heart-


“I had not painted my eyes, barely powdered, barely rouged my lips, and edness, the pair of stockings I had
left in his drawer—my best pair—
not touched my nails” while I was wearing mended stock-
ings to save for gifts to him.” Diary
Despite, or perhaps because of, her envy of June Miller’s body type, Nin would incorporate 35, 211, entry of August 16, 1932; Nin
and Miller, A Literate Passion,
elements of June Miller’s style into her own dress, if only temporarily. Nin enjoyed the use 65, 109.
of cosmetics, and they were among purchases she made at the department store Printemps 39 “I buy rouge, powder, [and] nail
in Paris in 1932.39 She applied what she called “paint” to her eyelashes and eyelids, used lacquer.” Diary 34, 243, undated

lipstick (referred to as “rouge”) and face powder, and painted her fingernails and toenails
8 DRESS 2019

entry between May 25 and May FIGURE 9 Anaïs Nin, New York, May 1929. Courtesy of the Anaïs Nin Trust.
27, 1932.

40 “eyelashes heavy with paint, eyelids


painted green . . . and oh, very crim-
son lips.” Nin, 1985, 306. “my eye-
lashes [are] more heavily painted
than a movie star.” Diary 32, 234,
undated entry between January 25
and February 1, 1932. “Anaïs has an
annoying habit of biting my ears
with most affectionate intention.
And of putting rouge on my lips,
cheek, forehead, and neck; and pow-
der on my coat-front.” Journal of
Hugh P. Guiler, 4, University of San
Francisco, Gleeson Library, Donohue
Rare Book Room, Anaïs Nin
Collection, Container 11, Folder 20.
Guiler did not number the pages of
his journal; when citing it, I count
page 1 as the first page of text fol-
lowing the title page.

41 “Indelible rouge.” Diary 33, 130,


undated entry between March 11 and
March 18, 1932. “The time I came
back from Henry’s room and washed
myself, and [Hugh] could have
noticed . . . much rouge rubbed off
on my handkerchief.” Diary 34, 27,
undated entry between April 18 and
April 23, 1932. “The time after I
kissed June when I saw the rouge
spread unevenly about my mouth—
[Hugh] did not see.” Diary 34, 28,
undated entry between April 18 and
April 23, 1932.
(FIGURES 5 and 9).40 Later, Nin described her lipstick as “indelible rouge,” noting she did
42 “her discolored mouth, badly rouged.”
Diary 32, 136, entry of January 4, 1932.
not think her husband noticed when her rouge was smeared or that she had stained her
“Her lip rouge varies from all shades handkerchiefs with rouge after intimate encounters with the Millers.41 By contrast, June
of red to green. Sometimes black.”
Bald, Life on The Left Bank, 88–89. Miller’s use of cosmetics was described as relatively bohemian and somewhat haphazard.42
“Medecine [sic] chest littered with Several days after June Miller left Paris to return to New York,43 Nin packed “hurriedly”
cold cream jar, colored face powders,
rouge sticks, shampoo oils, bleachers, for an impromptu trip to Switzerland and demonstrated less care for her appearance than
castor oil, tweezers, blackhead remov-
ers, depilatories[,] etc. Visits to the
usual.44 She chose to apply less make-up and neglected her fingernails.45 Wearing an old,
beauty parlor spasmodically, next day black velvet dress with holes at the elbows made her feel as if she were June Miller: “I had
same dirty finger nails!” Diary 33,
60–61, undated entry between dressed very carelessly, and felt as if I were June. The dress I love best now is an old black
February 16 and February 20, 1932, velvet dress which is torn at the elbows. June’s suit was torn at the elbows.”46
from notes on June Miller by Henry
Miller, copied by Nin into the diary. At first, Nin was amused by the unexpected effect of her new look on a man she
The results of Greenwich Village’s
influence included: “bizarre make-up,
encountered on the train to Switzerland in late January 1932:
use of dark powder, vaseline [sic]
eyes, heavy mascara, grotesque deco- Ruby [Nin’s dog] sat at my side and so my black coat and velvet jacket were covered with
rations.” (Diary 33, 112, entry of March his white hair. An Italian man who had tried during all the trip to catch my attention,
8, 1932, from notes on June Miller by
Henry Miller, copied by Nin into the finally in desperation, came up and offered me a brush to brush off Ruby’s hair. The
diary). “Life in the flat was no longer offer amused me, and so I laughed. He was immediately encouraged and rushed to get
bearable. Her things were all over the
place . . . creams and cosmetics, bath the brush out of his valise. . . . When I was through (and his brush full of white hairs) I
salts and toilet waters . . . perfumes thanked him. He said, very nervously: Will you come and have coffee with me? I said no,
and powder puffs.” Alfred “Fred”
Perl
es, Henry Miller’s flatmate at the and wanted to laugh because I was thinking: What would it have been if I had painted
time, as cited in Dick, Henry Miller: my eyes! I had been so happy in my negligence.47
Colossus of One, 201.

43 June Miller sailed from Le Havre on


the ^Ile de France on January 20, 1932,
“I looked around at the neatness of my dress . . . and decided I was at
“Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels least not as romantic as June”
Arriving at New York, New York,
1897–1957,” Microfilm Publication Nin’s adoption of June Miller’s bohemian, shabby style was to be short-lived. While in
T715, 8892 rolls. NAI: 300346.
Records of the Immigration and Switzerland, she quickly found that it was not for her.48 She stayed a few nights in a resort
Naturalization Service; National
Archives at Washington, DC, Year: hotel, but soon after she moved to a “sloppy” pension. This move seemed to be inspired by
1932; Arrival: New York, New York; the several days she had spent reflecting on the Millers’ bohemian life, making notes on
Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897–1957;
Microfilm Roll: Roll 5103; Line: 19; this in her diary and reading Dostoevsky. This new accommodation seemed to relate to her
Page Number: 132, retrieved from
Ancestry.com, New York, Passenger
common theme of “disorder.”49 However, not finding the pension to her liking, Nin stayed
only one night before moving to “an ordinary hotel.”50
“A woman with a hundred faces” 9

“I love [June Miller], as she is, as she is[,] I worship her. Disorder, chaos, incongruities, Lists, 1820–1957 [database online],
Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com
mindlessness—my antithesis. In every detail. I have tried wearing careless, sloppy clothes, Operations, 2010.
living in sloppy hotels—I can’t do it.”51 There, in her room in the hotel, Nin took inventory 44 “I made all the preparations—care-
of the articles of dress she had brought with her: less ones, unlike my usual self—I
didn’t care about appearances—
clothes, etc. I came away hurriedly.”
I observe my boots, my mocasins [sic] and my dressy shoes lined up regimentally in a Diary 32, 218, entry of January
corner of the room; my bottles lined up with exquisite symetry [sic]; my books close 25, 1932.
set and tidy. My desk tidy. My green comb broke in two. I keep half of it for Ruby’s 45 “I had not painted my eyes, barely
white hair, and half for my black hair, side by side. And only a minute or so ago I powdered, barely rouged my lips,
and not touched my nails.” Diary 33,
stood before the mirror and said irritably: If I must wear an oldish and shabbish 21, undated entry between February
black coat, there is no reason in the world why it shouldn’t hang just right. I must fix 6 and February 16, 1932.
that hemline.52 46 Diary 33, 22, undated entry between
February 6 and February 16, 1932.
As much as she admired June Miller, Nin found that she preferred cleanliness, order,
47 Diary 33, 21–22, undated entry
and comfort. between February 6 and February
16, 1932.

48 Bair wrote that Nin spent the month


“I had my gold-red-brown hair—so indefinite—dyed a deep blue-black” of February at a spa in Switzerland
and had cosmetic surgery on her nose
in Switzerland in both February and
The description of a seemingly small event in Nin’s dress practices, the dyeing of her March 1932. “She had mended her-
hair, reveals how differently biographers and dress historians interpret primary sour- self . . . spending February [1932] at a
Swiss spa where she had massages,
ces. Two biographers—and in particular Deirdre Bair—who examined Nin’s handwrit- drank the waters, and had the tip of
ten diaries included information on Nin’s hair color that did not appear in the her downward drooping nose surgi-
cally removed.” Bair, Anaïs Nin: A
published diaries, which led me to pay special attention to Nin’s description of the Biography, 132. “The tip of flesh on her
nose was removed in Switzerland in
event. I found several key differences between what was in the diaries and what the March [1932].” Bair, Anaïs Nin: A
biographers reported.53 According to Bair, the night Nin first met June Miller, Nin’s Biography, 549. However, information
to support this was not found in the
hair was newly dyed black “especially for June because Henry [Miller] had told [Nin] primary and secondary sources used in
black was June’s color.”54 However, my reading of Nin’s original diaries did not con- this study. Rather, contradictory infor-
mation was found in abundance.
firm Bair’s version of events nor did other primary sources describe June Miller’s hair According to Nin, she went to
Switzerland in late January 1932: “Jan
as black.55 Although Nin might have confided in one of the many persons interviewed 25—Leave for Switzerland at 8. sleep
in Les Avants [Switzerland],” fourth
by Bair, in her diaries Nin made no mention of Henry Miller telling her of his wife’s unnumbered page of “Journal of
hair color nor wanting to emulate it. Instead, she recorded that she dyed her hair black Facts” in Diary 32, and returned in
early February: “I’ll be home Friday
two weeks after meeting June Miller, with her own, well-articulated reason evening,” postcard to her mother,
for doing so: Rosa Culmell, postmarked February 2,
1932, Glion sur Montreux, Switzerland,
Anaïs Nin Collection, University of San
This morning [January 16, 1932] I awoke to follow a crazy impulse and before I met Francisco, Container 2, Folder 24 and
June I had my gold-red-brown hair—so indefinite—dyed a deep blue-black. It was an “Louveciennes Feb. 6—Came home.”
Diary 33, 17, entry of February 6, 1932.
effort to evade myself from my confining personality—the physical personality. My No mention of a spa experience or
soft, pastel, indefinite coloring did not express my decisiveness and intellectual surgeries in February or March 1932
were found in the primary sources ref-
positivism. Now I am happy, although this constant effort I make not to be confined erenced for this report. Further, Nin’s
by a determinate personality seems ridiculous.56 letters to Henry Miller dated February
12, 13, 22, 25, and 26 and March 2, 9,
20, 21, and 26, 1932, were written from
The discovery of this richly detailed text that had been omitted from both biographies Louveciennes, France, indicating that
and the published diaries highlights the value of primary sources to the study of dress his- she was at home on those dates, Nin
and Miller, A Literate Passion, 4–6,
tory. The implication that Nin dyed her hair black to impress or emulate June Miller, 8–16, 20–22, 31–32, 34–35, 37–45.
before the two women had ever met, is in sharp contrast to Nin’s description of events. By 49 “It was sunny then—I liked the
changing her hair color from “indefinite” “gold-red-brown” to “deep blue-black” so that she Russian disorder about—cats, dogs,
birds, dozens of snow boots and
felt her personality was more truly expressed, Nin’s stated rationale for dyeing her hair is coats and canes. The Russian maid
significant to dress historians for what it reveals about Nin’s motivations for expressing her did my room. I laid Dostoevsky on
the night table. And I knew all the
inner personality. while that I was being romantic,
that I probably would be uncomfort-
able and it would not be good for
me.” Diary 32, 246–47, entry of
“I serve the goddess of beauty, working for her that she may grant February 1, 1932.

me gifts” 50 “Dinner was late—and it was very


bad. I had insisted on eating alone.
Nin was known to have her dressmaker inflate her bills so she could secretly give part The family interested me but I
would watch them from afar.
of her allowance to Henry Miller.57 Despite this diversion of funds, Nin made her However, I interested them and the
next day I had to eat with them and
appearance a priority. Her diary contains a vivid account of cosmetic surgery on her
10 DRESS 2019

the Princess had come in my room nose in France in July 1932.58 The week before the procedure, Nin wrote of her plan,
and sat down—and an hour after
our meal together I was settled in an self-reflective of the irony in having limited money to spend on clothing:
ordinary hotel, where the imperson-
ality and impeccable cleanliness and These days I occupy myself with frivolities . . . [Nin’s ellipsis] I serve the goddess of
food that did not smell of cabbage
soothed my miserable mood. I had beauty, working for her that she may grant me gifts—I work for a dazzling skin, electric
run away from the romantic. I hair, for my health—True, I have no new clothes, because of Henry, but that doesn’t
wanted a rest from the romantic. I
liked having my dinner on time! I matter. I have dyed and altered and rearranged things. I’m going to risk on Monday an
looked around at the neatness of my operation which will forever efface the upward humorous tilt of my nose!59
dress and room and decided I was at
least not as romantic as June.” Diary
32, 247–48, entry of February 1, 1932. Nin’s self-awareness of how she valued her appearance is telling. Referring to her appear-
51 Diary 32, 245, entry of February
ance as a “frivolity,” she wrote that she “served the goddess of beauty” within her financial
1, 1932. constraints, dyeing and altering her existing wardrobe so she could give money to Henry
52 Diary 33, 9–10, entry of February Miller. At the same time, she was able to set aside funds to have her nose altered, suggesting
3, 1932.
that placed caring for her appearance on par with supporting Miller.
53 Fitch and Bair both wrote that Nin
dyed her hair sometime in late
December 1931 or early January 1932;
Deirdre Bair, Anaïs Nin: A Biography,
127, 548–49; Fitch, Anaïs: The Erotic “I do not try to be the femme fatale . . . I feel loved for myself—for my
Life of Anaïs Nin, 112.
inner self”
54 Deirdre Bair, Anaïs Nin: A
Biography, 548–49.
As their psychoanalytic sessions continued throughout the summer of 1932, Dr. Allendy
55 Nin, June Miller, and a contemporary began to see a change in Nin’s dress:
newspaper account described the color
of June’s hair in December 1931 and
January 1932 as having been blonde:
One of the things he observed was that I was dressing more simply. I have felt much less
“Her blond hair . . . ” Nin, describing an the need of original costume. I could almost wear an ordinary tailor[ed] suit now. Why?
evening with the Millers on January 2,
1932, Diary 32, 130, entry dated January Costume for me has been a very significant exteriorization. Not being certain of my
4, 1932; “her shoulder length hair, now beauty or strength I have designed original, striking clothes which distinguish me from
blond,” June Miller’s appearance on her
first visit to the Guilers’ home, as other women. I have compensated with an external expression for the secret lack of self
described to Kenneth Dick by June confidence [sic]. Having a sense of my own value I can wear a tailor[ed] suit without
Miller, Dick, Henry Miller: Colossus of
One, 199. To the journalist Wambly feeling effaced.60
Bald’s eyes, June Miller’s hair was “a
gold-kissed rust, almost red.” Bald, On Dr. Allendy attributed Nin’s switch to this “more simple” way of dressing to her
the Left Bank (January 12, 1932), 87. Fred
Perles, Henry Miller’s flatmate, later increased self-esteem, but Nin also saw being well dressed was an important means for
described June Miller’s hair as being
dyed black in the autumn of 1932, as it
enhancing her self-image in those times when she lacked self-confidence: “When I do
had been the first time he had met her, not have it [self-confidence], costume helps me, adds to my firm carriage, augments my
a few years prior. Bald described her hair
as having gone through several color poise. I suffered so keenly during my girlhood from being badly dressed, which added
changes: “Her hair is generally pinned so much to my sense of inferiority. Now I rely on clothes.”61
high in back, or she lets it fly in the
wind. Last year her hair was purple, the Nin decided that she did not want to be completely healed by psychoanalysis in this
year before it was mauve, next year it
will be platinum. Now it is dyed a gold- regard. She enjoyed dressing well, even seeing her need for a psychoanalytic “cure” as an
kissed rust, almost red.” Bald, On the
Left Bank, 87; perhaps she had changed
impetus for dressing dramatically: “But, I added laughing, now if I get happy and banal, the
it in the interim and then re-dyed it art of costuming which owes its existence then purely to a sense of insufficiency, will be
black by the autumn of 1932: “her jet-
black hair had grown a little longer and mortally affected—may even disappear.”62 Not wanting to give up dressing dramatically,
a little blacker still.” Perles, as cited in
Dick, Henry Miller: Colossus of One, 201.
Nin concluded that she would rather not be fully cured by Allendy, just enough to “gain in
strength” and “enjoy life more.”63
56 Diary 32, 180–81, entry of January 16,
1932; “[Saturday] Jan 16–9 h. [heures] As her romance with Henry Miller progressed, Nin found increased confidence in her
hair dyed black 12 h. Meet June for a
few moments.” Diary 32, fourth
physical appearance while simultaneously she felt loved for her “inner self,” of which she
page of “Journal of Facts.” had not just one, but many, with “a hundred faces” (FIGURE 10).64 Nin wrote:
57 “You know how she’d do it? Every There was once a woman who had one hundred faces. She showed one face to each
time she ordered a dress she told
the dressmaker to add a couple hun- person, and so it took one hundred men to write her biography. . . . [P]ersonality is not
dred francs extra to the bill. Then the geographical status lovers of unity would have us believe. It is a succession of
she’d give that to me [Henry Miller]”
as told to Barbara Kraft, “Henry reincarnations within the span of one human life.65
Miller: The Last Days: An Excerpt
from the New Memoir,” A Cafe in Nin came to feel more confident with time and the natural process of maturation, which
Space 13, 27.
was supported by Henry Miller’s admiration of her body and the psychoanalysis she under-
58 Diary 35, 113–16, entry of July went with Dr. Allendy. Her cousin, Eduardo Sanchez, attributed Nin’s new confidence
12, 1932.
purely to psychoanalysis.66 Uncertain who had helped her to accept herself, Nin wrote, “Is
it Allendy or Henry who are [sic] curing me?”67
“A woman with a hundred faces” 11

FIGURE 10 Anaïs Nin in the garden of the Guiler-Nin family home in Louveciennes, France, 1933. 59 Diary 35, 108, entry of Wednesday,
Courtesy of the Anaïs Nin Trust. July 6, 1932. I have concluded that
Nin’s cosmetic surgery took place on
Monday, July 11, 1932.

60 Diary 34, 301, entry of June 2, 1932.

61 Diary 34, 301–02, entry of June


2, 1932.

62 Diary 34, 302, entry of June 2, 1932.

63 Diary 34, 302, entry of June 2, 1932.

64 “You’re beautiful, beautiful [said


Henry Miller].” Diary 34, 160, entry
of May 13, 1932. “I lose my fear of
showing myself naked. He loves me.
. . . We laugh at my gaining weight.
. . . I do not try to be the femme
fatale! It is useless. He says I look
like a magazine cover girl. Nothing
hurts me! I feel loved for myself—
for my inner self—for every word I
write, for my timidities, my sorrows,
my struggles, my defects—my
frailness.” Diary 34, 160–61, entry of
May 13, 1932. Nin also experienced a
slight weight gain, something she
knew Miller found attractive, Diary
34, 196, undated entry between May
16 and May 20, 1932. She had earlier
told Dr. Allendy that gaining the
“few pounds more” would enhance
her self-esteem. “Beautiful things he
[Miller] says to me, now. My own
kind of loveliness is growing on
him.” Diary 35, 88, entry of July 6,
Conclusion 1932. “As he pours his passion into
me I become beautiful. . . . To my
A saying often credited to Anaïs Nin reads “We don’t see things as they are, we see them Henry now I show a hundred faces.
He watches me, watches me. Now I
as we are.”68 Combined with Nin’s words that open this report (“There was once a woman look Grecian, classical, June, now
tired and childlike, now corrupt,
who had one hundred faces . . . so it took one hundred men to write her biography”), these fierce, savage in his arms, now I am
two quotes illustrate the potential for dress history, biography, and primary sources to like Brigitte Helm, now like a
Russian actress, now like June, now
reflect only a fraction of the many possible sides of any one subject. This report investi- I look wise, now thoughtful.” Diary
gated predominantly primary sources to begin the first complete study of the dress of 35, 178–79, entry of August 15, 1932.

Anaïs Nin after noting differences between the Nin’s published diaries and two biographies. 65 Diary 30, 293, entry dated April
20, 1931.
To date, no other scholar has undertaken such a comprehensive examination of archival
materials relating to Nin, save her biographers. This study has underlined the importance 66 Diary 35, 64, undated entry between
June 27 and July 6, 1932.
of primary research; based on examination of primary material, this project noted signifi-
67 Diary 34, 159, entry of May 13, 1932.
cant differences in descriptions of Nin’s dress practices between Nin’s unpublished diaries
and one of her biographies. For example, rather than emulation, Nin dyed her hair to 68 “Lillian was reminded of the
Talmudic words: ‘We do not see
express her inner self. Given the large body of primary source material available in the things as they are, we see them as
we are.’” Nin, Cities of the Interior
form of Nin’s diaries and her correspondence, further research into the dress practices of (Athens, OH: Swallow Press,
Nin is called for, not just for the period examined in this report but her entire life. The 1987), 578.
description of Nin’s dress and beauty practices in this paper resonate with concepts of 69 Diary 30, 294, entry of April 20, 1931.
embodiment, self-esteem, sexuality, and personal identity that are of particular interest to 70 Diary 36, 26–27, entry of August
dress scholarship. Further study could expand on these concepts as well as provide further 28, 1932.
insights into this influential twentieth-century writer. While Dr. Allendy wanted to see her
find her “true self,” Nin recognized that she was not one but many selves. Nin knew she
had no one true self that was fixed and unchanging. Before meeting the Millers and Dr.
Allendy, she wrote “I do not resign myself to my one hundred faces.” 69 But by August
1932, she was comfortable being “a woman with a hundred faces.”
Must tell Allendy that I feel now a continuous sincerity even when I am the fatalistic
sombre [sic] sensual woman—it is no longer a role[,] it has developed from my maturity.
I am now those stronger roles I acted before. But I reached them as a natural
developement [sic], not by mental will. Because they grew and are not acquired, they are
real. Because they are real I am not strained and uneasy. I enjoy the variegated moods. I
am a woman with a hundred faces.70
12 DRESS 2019

What has emerged from this study’s findings is a picture of Nin as a changeable
woman, whose dress and beauty practices also were changeable. Her psychoanalyst tried
to steer her towards discovery of a true, unchangeable self that he believed would be
reflected in simpler dress. However, as she herself wrote, even though she felt change-
able and “variegated,” she felt a simultaneous “continuous sincerity.” She dyed her hair
to more accurately express her personality. She tried on June Miller’s shabby, bohemian
style but found that it disagreed with her. She enjoyed the use of cosmetics, regular
visits to the hairdresser, and shopping for dresses, jewelry, and cosmetics. Nin altered
clothing while diverting some or all of her clothing allowance to Henry Miller for his
support, yet managed to set aside money for her own cosmetic surgery. Insofar as she
confided to her diaries in 1931 and 1932, Anaïs Nin’s nature may have reflected a
woman with a hundred faces, but by late 1932, she was comfortable with her change-
able nature, especially as reflected in her appearance.

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