Object: Dress
Designer:
Grès
(French)
Date: c. 1950
Medium: Silk satin
Country: France
Credit Line: Gift of Ms. Jean Vaughan
Object number: 79.24.24
DescriptionDress in champagne beige silk satin with sleeveless blouson bodice and short pegged skirt
Label Text:This cocktail dress was possibly inspired by the sacque-back dress popularized by couturier Cristobal Balenciaga in the mid-1950s. Grès's version does not have the commanding presence of a Balenciaga because she broke up the line by containing the back pleats with an inset waistband, creating two smaller poufs rather than one large one. The result is a dress that gives the wearer a greater sense of her own body by defining her shape. Balenciaga carried the fullness of his sacque-back dresses, gowns, and tunics to their respective hemlines, a technique that obscured all sense of the body underneath.
Exhibitions:
- Madame Grès