Dress
The memory of Adrian's Marie Antoinette costumes survives in this evening dress. Its pattern reflects the heavily embroidered Baroque motifs of Louis XV s movie court through the use of a warp-weave taffeta so light and full of body that it holds its shape without any built-in underpinnings. The airy large-scale symmetrical pattern circles around the basket of flowers at the skirt's center front, referencing the ponderous gold embroidery radiating from the central motif of an angel's head on the underskirt of Madame du Barry's ball gown. The heavily embroidered engageantes on her sleeves have mutated and migrated to the bustline, where they form two wings emerging from the center bodice.
Artwork Details
- Title: Dress
- Designer: Gilbert Adrian (American, Naugatuck, Connecticut 1903–1959 Hollywood, California)
- Date: 1942–52
- Culture: American
- Medium: silk, metal
- Credit Line: Gift of Patricia Pastor and Barry Friedman, 2012
- Object Number: 2012.538.12
- Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute
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