Charles Alias
Date of birth: 1853 ca
Place of birth: Paris
Date of death: 11 May 1921
Place of death: London
Category: theatrical costumier
Identity:
Charles Alias was an art editor and theatrical costumier. His wife Sarah was his partner in the theatrical costume business at 114 St Martins Lane, Mayfair.
Life:
Alias was art editor to John Hollingshead's The Story of Leicester Square (London, 1892). He supplied costumes for the Christmas 1879 pantomime Gulliver in which both Connie Gilchrist and Nellie Farren appeared.
Following Whistler's return from Venice in 1880, he approached Alias's wife about making a dress to his own design to be worn by Maud Waller as she posed for Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl y226. According to Maud Waller's sister, Mrs Marzetti, the dress cost a great deal.
Bibliography:
UK census 1881 from http://www.familysearch.org; Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 .
