As the final spring of WW II approached, the glamour and culture that traditionally festooned the City of Light was dimmed by lack of food, transportation, utilities and clothing; the French art de vivre seemed to have disappeared behind ration lines. However, in March 1945 a ray of hope gleamed from Paris's Museum of Decorative Arts: the Theatre de la Mode, a dazzling, fantastical exhibition of the season's finest haute couture fashions, modeled by miniature mannequins who pranced, promenaded and reclined across stage sets designed by Christian Berard. A war-relief fund-raiser, the exhibition subsequently traveled across Europe and to the U.S. The Theatre remained in residence at the Maryhill Museum in Goldendale, Wash., until 1983, when Kent State University history professor Simon Garfinkel discovered it, contacted Vogue's Paris fashion editor Susan Train, and thus began a successful transatlantic attempt to revive the exhibit. This beautifully illustrated volume tells the tale.