The Exposition Internationale of 1937 anticipated the Société des Artistes Décorateurs salon of 1939, the last salon before World War II, which was presented in the guise of a surrealist street at night. Sponsored by the Parisian electric power company, the exhibition had lighting designed by Man Ray and was meant to be a fantastic contrast to the evil events in the real world, where Hitler was on the march. Surrealism flourished in the late 1930s as the Second World War loomed over the horizon. In 1938, the largest surrealist exposition to date took place in Paris, and Americans saw Dali's water ballet at the 1939 World's Fair in New York.

Throughout the existence of the Tirocchi shop, its clients adopted stylish French silhouettes. The records, photographs, design books, and extant garments give an excellent overall view of fashion's changing lines and surface designs over the thirty-plus years up to 1941, when the customer base declined sharply. Little clothing remained from the 1910s in the shop itself in 1990, but the paper records and the design books referred to by Anna Tirocchi and her customers illustrate the advance of modernism. From about 1912 onwards, the records show a progression from the loose, liberating Empire styles of the 1910s through the chemise dresses of the 1920s to the restrained elegance of the streamlined, "classic" apparel of the 1930s and early 40s.

Among the earliest of the Tirocchi garments is a dress with high waistline, free-falling form, and gaily colored peasant embroidery strongly reminiscent of those Paul Poiret was designing in the 1910s. Found in the family quarters at 514 Broadway, this much worn dress [fig. 119] tempts the speculation that it belonged to Laura Tirocchi Cella herself -who then would have been just the type of slim young girl that Poiret used as his models -and was lovingly preserved first by her and later by her daughter Beatrice.

Dating from about 1918, an exquisite evening dress of pink gauze with silver paillettes appliquéd to the net bears the pin tag used by the Tirocchi sisters to indicate a dress included in the inventory they took of stock around 1920. The inventory itself reveals that no. 434 was "Flesh &Spang. robe 30.00," probably indicating that the sisters made the dress from a ready-to-cut, pre-embroidered dress-length called a "robe" in the trade. These pieces were a French tradition dating back at least to the eighteenth century for mens' waistcoats and ladies slippers, and at least to the nineteenth century for women's garments. The dress remained unpurchased, but was never disposed of by the sisters. In later years some of this early clothing was sold to clients for fancy dress; they were referred to by the Tirocchi bookkeeper as "ancient dresses" and were often altered to suit new occasions. Several garments from this period show the popularity of folk motifs such as those employed by Poiret in the early teens. Peasant embroidery, smocking, and the use of brightly colored fabrics are trends of the time represented in clothing in the Tirocchi collection [figs. 120-121].

Few couturiers' names can be associated with client purchases of this period, but several design books from various suppliers are preserved from this date. One, from B. Altman &Company, shows dresses for which materials and a photograph could be purchased from the New York department store. In 1919, three Tirocchi clients ordered dresses from B. Altman sketches: Mrs. William F. Chapin, Jr., purchased a serge dress, Altman's no. 2379, while Miss Helen Harris bought a blue embroidered serge, and Mrs. Barnes Newberry ordered a dress to be made based on B. Altman's sketch entitled "Tosca" in henna chiffon [see fig. 17, p. 34]. Tirocchi clients also made use of such fashion magazines as the widely available Harper's Bazar, to which the sisters subscribed, or Vogue, and could order a dress made after one of their sketches. Vogue illustrated as many as thirty-three models from Paris in each issue and about twice as many American dresses in the "Seen in the Shops" section. In addition, each issue contained pages of line drawings of its patterns, a service the highly skilled Tirocchi dressmakers did not use. Advertisements provided many more images.

In America, Vogue not only provided sketches and patterns of fashions derived from Paris models, but also actively promoted the French couture. In 1909, the magazine published a ground-breaking article about Paul Poiret with plates from the 1908 booklet Les Robes de Paul Poiret, racontées par Paul Iribe and in 1913 closely followed his trip to America. In April 1910, following another article on Poiret, it presented a piece on Lucile, Lady Duff-Gordon, who, although a British-born designer, worked in Paris. The issue of January 1923, the magazine's thirtieth anniversary year, was full of Paris. With a cover designed by French artists Pierre Brissaud and Georges Lepape, it contained articles entitled "So this was Paris, 1904-1911"; "Thirty Years of the Mode" (meaning "the mode that originates in Paris"); and a page of photographs and illustrations by "Our French Artists in Paris," including Lepape, Brissaud, Martin, Marty, Édouard-Garcia Benito, and others who were illustrators for the Gazette du Bon Ton and various magazines that began to appear in 1912.