Evening ensemble

The French couture house Myrbor was opened in July 1922 by Marie Cuttoli, a French statesman's wife, on 17 rue Vignon in Paris. Only in operation until 1936, the house employed prominent European and Russian artists including Picasso and Matisse to create designs for the interior decorations and clothing which the house produced. Both Eastern European émigrés who worked as set designers with Leon Bakst, Natalia Goncharova, a Russian Futurist artist, and Sarah Lipska, of Polish origins, were among the House's coterie of artists. These two women executed designs for embroideries and, in Goncharova's case, garments, which extant fashion sketches document. Lipska's work is represented in the Brooklyn Museum collection in the form of embroidery samples. Both women's designs for Myrbor are characterized by abstract motifs and Cubist-inspired patterns which were fashioned in embroidery and appliqués applied in a distinctive open whip stitch.

A whimsical design which encapsulates the bold free-spiritedness of the 1920s, this dress is one of only four Myrbor garments in the Brooklyn Museum collection. Myrbor garments are rare, and they document an important moment in fashion history, when art was intertwined with fashion. The graphic abstract motifs, the various contrasting materials used and the interesting color combination is typical of other Myrbor creations, and is evidence of the artistic influence on Myrbor designs.