Object: Evening dress
Brand:
Alix
Designer:
Alix Grès
(French)
Date: 1938
Medium: Black matte silk jersey
Country: France
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. Rodman A. Heeren
Object number: 70.57.68
DescriptionBackless evening wrap dress in sheer black silk jersey, with halter style neckline and floor length flared skirt draped at left hip; couture
Label Text:A brilliant example of Grès's modern appropriation and reconfiguration of classicism can be seen in this matte silk jersey gown. While startling in its modernist clarity of line - note the sharply defined halter neckline and the open back cut away to form a near perfect square of flesh - it also reveals the link to Grès's version of classicism with the gathering of finely pleated jersey at the central of the torso. Another important early variation on the classical Greek-inspired gown is Grès's use of a color other than white.
In Collection(s)
Exhibitions:
- Fashion & Textile History Gallery First Rotation
- Fashioning the Modern Woman: The Art of the Couturiere, 1919-1939
- Elegance in an Age of Crisis: Fashions from the 1930s
- Madame Grès