blog.mode: addressing fashion

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel (French, 1883–1971). Ensemble, 1922. Brown silk georgette with red, green, and blue stylized floral silk thread chainstitch embroidery. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Friends of The Costume Institute Gifts, 2005 (2005.114a, b).

When Karl Lagerfeld, the creative director of Chanel, first saw this ensemble, he immediately lifted its hem and examined the reverse of the lavish embroidery. “This is not handwork. It is machine,” he declared. Read more »

French Dress (Robe à la Française), ca. 1765. Pale blue silk satin with hammered silver floral brocade and silver bobbin lace trim. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Irene Lewisohn Bequest, 2001 (2001.472a, b).

This court gown is said to have come from descendants of one of Queen Marie Antoinette’s Austrian ladies-in-waiting. Read more »

Paul Poiret (French, 1879–1944). “Théâtre des Champs-Élysées” Gown, 1913. Ivory silk damask, ivory silk net, and ivory China silk with rhinestone trim. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Paul D. Schurgot Foundation Fund, 2005 (2005.193a–e).

This particular model, worn by Paul Poiret’s wife, Denise, to the premiere of Le Sacre du printemps, was named after the recently opened Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, where the Diaghilev and Stravinsky collaboration was inaugurated. Read more »

Austrian Evening Dress, 1910–12. Pink silk satin, yellow silk satin, pink silk net with gold bead, rhinestone, and silk thread embroidery and tasseled rope appliqué, white silk lace trim. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Irene Lewisohn Estate, 2003 (2003.46).

This evening dress from Vienna reflects a shift in international taste emanating from the couture houses of Paris. Read more »

Rei Kawakubo (Japanese, b. 1942) for Comme des Garçons (Japanese, founded 1969). Dress, 1983. Black wool jersey. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Muriel Kallis Newman, 2003 (2003.79.21).

The impact of Rei Kawakubo’s designs in Paris in 1983 was groundbreaking. Her runway presentation, with its unconventional models wearing body-obscuring layers rendered in coarsely textured materials, was received as transgressive and anti-fashion. Read more »

Helmut Lang (Austrian, b. 1956). Evening Dress (detail), fall/winter 2004–5. White mushroom-pleated silk organza, white silk chiffon, and natural horsehair. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mr. Helmut Lang, 2006 (2006.76).

Helmut Lang designs accrued “street cred” because their uncompromising modernism was also informed by the edginess of the urban demimonde. Read more »

Left: American Underdress, ca. 1827. White cotton and broderie anglaise trim. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Judith and Ira Sommer Gift, 2006 (2006.29.1); Right: American Dress, 1830–35. White cotton with white cotton lace trim. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Judith and Ira Sommer Gift, 2006 (2006.29.2).

The underdress shown at left is poised between a period of classicism, with its columnar silhouette, and eclectic romanticism, with its burgeoning skirt forms. Read more »

Yohji Yamamoto (Japanese, b. 1943). Dress, spring/summer 2005. Red hand-pleated silk crepe. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Friends of The Costume Institute Gifts, 2006 (2006.37).

When asked about the inspiration for his beautifully pleated gowns, Yohji Yamamoto replied equivocally, “Maybe Mme Grès—maybe.” Read more »

Charles Frederick Worth (French, born England, 1826–1895). Court Gown and Train, 1888. Pink silk satin with matching silk tulle and lace applied trim, metallic sequin and purple stone embroidery, and applied white ostrich plumes with court train of printed ivory, pink, and olive green devoré silk velvet. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Friends of The Costume Institute Gifts, 2007 (2007.385a–m).

The Englishman Charles Frederick Worth is considered the inventor of the modern fashion system, with its seasonal menu of constantly evolving styles. The couture house he established in the mid-nineteenth century was considered the preeminent Parisian fashion establishment of its day. Read more »

Image: Olivier Theyskens (Belgian, b. 1977) for Nina Ricci (French, founded 1932). Evening Dress, spring/summer 2007. Steel gray heat-crinkled silk organza embroidered with linear chain stitch in white silk. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mario Grauso, 2007 (2007.376.2a, b).

For his inaugural collection at Nina Ricci, Olivier Theyskens referenced not only the archives of the house’s faintly recalled eponymous founder but also her perfume, L’Air du Temps, with its two doves hovering above the bottle of swirling crystal. Read more »