Evening Dress
1937 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
In 1928 the Anglo-American designer Charles James (1906-1978) brought a nonconformist vision to fashion that won him the ardent support of an elegant coterie of women with the courage to wear his adventurous, and at times demanding, creations. This black sliver of a dress in shiny slipper satin was the culmination of months of experiments with pleating wide silk ribbons (from the French silk-weavers Colcombet) to create bodices that opened around the torso like petals.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Satin decorated with silk ribbon |
| Brief description | Evening dress of satin, designed by Charles James, London, 1937 |
| Physical description | Long evening dress of black silk satin with double shoestring halter straps looped in a Y stay at the centre back. The bodice is made of fan-folded wide silk ribbons. The dress has a sheath skirt with a slight train. It fastens along the centre back with press studs and hooks and eyes. |
| Dimensions | Approx. size 10-12 |
| Credit line | Bequeathed by Miss Philippa Barnes |
| Object history | In Elizabeth Ann Coleman, "The Genius of Charles James", cat. no 37, this is the only model of this gown described and identified. She identifies it as having been made in London, probably in 1937 whilst he was briefly in London in between sojourns to Paris. |
| Summary | In 1928 the Anglo-American designer Charles James (1906-1978) brought a nonconformist vision to fashion that won him the ardent support of an elegant coterie of women with the courage to wear his adventurous, and at times demanding, creations. This black sliver of a dress in shiny slipper satin was the culmination of months of experiments with pleating wide silk ribbons (from the French silk-weavers Colcombet) to create bodices that opened around the torso like petals. |
| Bibliographic reference | Mendes, Valerie. Black In Fashion. London: V&A Publications, 1999.
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | T.290-1978 |
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| Record created | February 19, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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