As the twentieth century progressed, manufacturers and importers introduced time- and labor-saving innovations to enable dressmakers to more easily reproduce model gowns. Decorated skirt panels, lace flounces, and pre-embroidered and ornamented lengths of fabric, called "robes," were made available to dressmakers. The "robe's" embroidery was usually worked to conform to the shape of the finished garment, and pattern edges were clearly indicated so that the dressmaker could easily cut out and assemble the pattern's pieces with reference to the individual customer's measurements. Model books - those of the Harry Angelo Company form the most complete set in the Tirocchi Archive - illustrate the evolution toward these time-saving materials. Between 1918 and 1924, Harry Angelo's model books increasingly offered embroideries, "robes," and finally, "model sets" that included everything needed to complete the garment, in order to simplify the dressmaker's task. Anna took advantage of these materials. During the early years of the shop, she ordered a large number of embroidered and decorated panels. Dressmakers stitched together the large panels to make overskirts, while smaller panels could be adapted to create bodices and kimono sleeves. Figure 22 shows a skirt panel and matching border probably dating close to 1911 or 1912, when A. & L. Tirocchi opened for business at the Butler Exchange. The panel and border have been embroidered in the art nouveau taste popular during the first decade of the twentieth century. Lace flounces and borders were also available.

Cabinets full of lace and embroidered panels remained in the shop on Broadway at the time of Anna's death in 1947. Their survival was probably due to a change in style that occurred between 1918 and 1924, when the bodice, skirt, and waist girdle typical of the 1910s and earlier gave way to the simple chemise shape of the 1920s. The many varieties of laces, embroideries, trims, and panels offered during the 1910s and into the early 1920s did not suit this new conception, which lent itself to a different kind of overall decoration. The existing Tirocchi stock quickly went out of fashion, accounting for the large amount of material remaining in the house: goods that could not be returned to manufacturers or importers. The Tirocchis were not the only ones affected by the radical shift in fashion, for the industry as a whole suffered. In 1922, the New York Times reported on the effect of the new fashion on Paris industry: "...Paris modes are causing an annual loss to French commerce of 500,000,000 francs. The exportation of ‘articles de modes' and dress accessories - laces, embroideries, feathers, etc. - is that much less now. The situation is attributed...to present feminine fashions which are characterized by an absence of practically all trimmings and ornaments."(10) To make up for the loss of interest in laces and embroideries, importers began offering more "robes," which perfectly suited the changing fashion needs because they arrived with their ornament complete and integrated into the overall design. Figure 23 shows a "robe" purchased by Anna during a trip to Paris in 1926. The simple chemise shape allowed the embroidery designer to approach the garment as an overall canvas and create a design suited to it, such as these Kandinsky-inspired motifs.

The idea for "robes" was not new. It evolved naturally from the technique of embroidery, which was executed not on the finished garment, but on a length of fabric stretched over a hoop or frame. The same idea had been used in the eighteenth century for the creation of elaborately embroidered men's vests and waistcoats and had also been adapted to the drawloom for the production of "engineered" fabric, which was patterned with woven designs to the shape of the finished garment. Mercers sold these previously embroidered or brocaded lengths to their clients, who took them to tailors to be made up in the appropriate size. Although lavishly embroidered silk and velvet suits for men were replaced by those made of dark wool early in the nineteenth century, "robes" continued in use, particularly for women's dresses. Embroiderers employed them in the creation of the intricately embellished gowns of the Napoleonic era and revived them when elaborate ornament again became fashionable during the 1850s and 1860s. Mercers such as La Compagnie Lyonnaise and Gagelin-Opigez et Compagnie carried "robes" along with their other dry goods. A dress made from a "robe" of about 1855 in green taffeta brocaded with white silk to resemble lace has survived in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, along with a picture of the skirt and a list of the materials needed to complete the dress.(11) An uncut embroidered "robe" in the RISD Museum from around 1865 provides evidence of the complexity and richness of such designs [fig. 24].