82nd & Fifth from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jan Glier Reeder

Photography by

Karin L. Willis

Evening Dress, 1946
Charles James (American, born Great Britain)
Silk, Wool
Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Arturo and Paul Peralta-Ramos, 1954 (2009.300.795)

Selected tracks provided by APM Music

This is
a
ball gown
designed by Charles James.
To me this dress is
absolutely fascinating
--its sculptural aspect
and the way that it reconfigures the woman’s body. Constructed of four different fabrics.
Each one
has its own weight,
degree of drape
and light-reflective property.
When the dress moves,
each one of these fabrics responds in a different way
to the light and to the movement,
creating
an ever-changing
visual experience.
James used mathematical concepts
to conceptualize the sculptural shape.
The skirt looks like a very highly structured shape;
it’s a really very simple maneuver. The panels are actually sewn together into a triangle.
The top is then taken and folded over
to meet at the back,
and that is what creates the flares.
The construction defies any usual dress-making norms. The bulk and the volume are in the front.
Surrealist ideation influenced James throughout his career.
The straps are not straps at all
but tapered extensions of the back of the bodice.
And the
back of the dress,
you could easily think it is the front.
James was interested in the female body as a vessel of reproduction.
Accentuating the hips would definitely have that reference of female fertilities.
His dresses were very blatantly erotic. James’s really devoted clients were very adventuresome
and weren’t out to look just pretty.
It’s the element of surprise
and wonder--nothing is ever the same.
His creations--when he really
has his hand in it,
the things that were made for his couture clients--
each one is its own creation.
The entire piece
is conceived as if in one brilliant moment.
It transcends its functional aspect and becomes a work of art on its own.

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82nd & Fifth

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