Designed by Madame Grès / Evening Gown / 1958

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Creator Name: Grès, Madame
Creator Nationality: European; French
Creator Role: Designer
Creator Dates/Places: French, 1903 - 1993
Creator Name-CRT: Designed by Madame Grès
Title: Evening Gown
Title Type: Object name
View: Full View
Creation Start Date: 1958
Creation End Date: 1958
Creation Date: 1958
Object Type: Costume and Jewelry
Classification Term: Main dress-Womenswear
Materials and Techniques: Silk
Dimensions: L. at center back 54 in. (137.2 cm)
AMICA Contributor: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Owner Location: New York, New York, USA
ID Number: 1973.104.2
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Leon L. Roos, 1973
Rights: http://www.metmuseum.org/
Context:

Grès, working earlier as Alix, created dresses in shafts of fabric, the diverse fluting of which served on the body like the entasis of a classical column. Seaming together fabric vertically so as to be continuous from hem to neckline, Grès pleated and tucked the materials into a shaping suitable to the body: the same fabric is buoyant and fluid when release-pleated from the waist down. She simulated a waist seam by tight tucking that continues through the bodice, and crowned the dress with volutes and twists. This tour-de-force of material rendered in diverse ways accounts for the tempered ergonomics of such dresses. Their wearers have testified that they felt secure and not immodest in these dresses, so organic was their creation. In this example, only one piece of fabric was added to the column: a small triangle was inserted under the arm to complete the structure, but otherwise the entire dress is conceived as one cylinder.

AMICA ID: MMA_.1973.104.2
AMICA Library Year: 2000
Media Metadata Rights: Copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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