Lubov Roudenko - The Merry Widow - New York 1943

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/357632863606?

Biography:

" Lubov Roudenko, later Luba Marks (1921 – 2020) was a Bulgarian-born (born Sofia, Bulgaria) French-American dancer and later fashion designer, of Russian descent specializing in sportswear from the 1950s to the 1980s. Under the name Lubov Roudenko, she was a soloist for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in the late 1930s and early 1940s, afterwards performing on Broadway throughout the 1940s. 

In 1938 Rodenko was signed up to the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, where, at 17, she was their youngest soloist. Her stage name was Lubov Roudenko, and she was also popularly known as "Spitfire Lu-Lu." She had a can-can sequence in the 1938 ballet Gaîté Parisienne choreographed specially for her by Léonide Massine.] She would later reprise this role in the 1941 Oscar-nominated short film The Gay Parisian. 

While with the Ballets Russes, Roudenko was the subject of several drawings by Henri Matisse in 1939. Four of his portrait sketches of her are now in the Fogg Museum. Matisse also made a drawing of Roudenko in the ballet Rouge et Noir. While on tour with the Ballet Russe, Rodenko performed the role of the Cowgirl in the 1942 ballet Rodeo until the tour reached New York and Agnes de Mille, the original choreographer, reclaimed the role for herself. Disappointed by this, Roudenko quit the Ballets Russes, and took a better-paid job performing in a Broadway production of The Merry Widow. This production launched at the Majestic Theatre on Aug 4, 1943 starring Jan Kiepura and Marta Eggerth with Roudenko and James Starbuck leading the character dances, including a comic polka and a can-can number. 

After this, Rodenko played Grisette in Nellie Bly, a short-lived 1946 musical based on the life of Nellie Bly, and then became lead dancer for the 1946–1949 Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun, but following a knee injury, decided to pursue a career in fashion design. She continued performing until 1951, appearing in the 1950–1951 Olsen and Johnson revue Pardon our French.

Luba and her first husband, Richard Marks, a manufacturer of coats and suits, launched their new clothing company Elite Juniors, in 1957. Elite Jrs. was a middle-range firm producing high-style coats, suits and separates for a fifth of the expected price. Luba first caught the attention of the fashion press by successfully reinterpreting the classic Chanel suit for ready-to-wear. Her designs were cut slim-fitting, with narrow sleeves and no bust darts, meaning that her designs looked more elegant and desirably Parisian than those of her rivals in the ready-to-wear field. Luba was also noted as an early promoter of the woman's pantsuit in America, dedicating over half of her 1966 collection to this look. It was noted that some of her pantsuit designs came out before Yves Saint Laurent produced his own very similar designs."

BB