Object: Suit
Designer:
Charles James
(1906 - 1978)
Date: 1955
Medium: Red silk with gold metallic threads
Country: USA
Credit Line: Gift of Jill Anson Szarkowski
Object number: 92.145.1
DescriptionThe Pagoda Suit or Tunic Suit in red silk with gold metallic floral brocaded pattern, tailored with high notch collar, 3/4 length sleeves and novelty seams; elongated and flared below waist; matching straight skirt
Label Text:The Pagoda Suit of 1955 exemplifies James' sculptural vision, which simultaneously abstracts and flatters the female form. James' color sensibility is equally sophisticated. In this case, red silk brocade with a gold floral pattern evokes what the artist Jean Cocteau called "the red and gold disease" - an obsessive passion for the theatre - by alluding to red theatrical curtains with curvilinear, gold decoration. The Pagoda Suit also evokes Orientalist associations, both in terms of its "Chinese red" color and Persian-style gold floral pattern, and in purely formal terms, with the gracefully flared jacket and high Moghul collar.
Relationships
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In Collection(s)
Exhibitions:
- RED
- She's like a Rainbow: Colors in Fashion
- China Chic: East Meets West
- Exhibitionism: 50 Years of the Museum at FIT