Jacket
In this dinner jacket, Alix reworks the conventions of tailored pattern pieces with the dressmaker's practice of pleating. The technique, which recalls Alix's draped jersey evening dresses, references the skeleton and musculature of the wearer. Typical of Alix's use of asymmetry for its poised disequilibrium, the jacket's center front opening is shifted to the left of the body.
Alix eschewed surface decoration, believing that ornament should be integral to construction. It is precisely this architectural minimalism that imbues this jacket with such grandeur and confidence. In the competitive world of café society, the wearer of this majestic tomato red dinner jacket would be no less visible than if she was wearing one of Schiaparelli's lavishly embroidered creations.
Alix eschewed surface decoration, believing that ornament should be integral to construction. It is precisely this architectural minimalism that imbues this jacket with such grandeur and confidence. In the competitive world of café society, the wearer of this majestic tomato red dinner jacket would be no less visible than if she was wearing one of Schiaparelli's lavishly embroidered creations.
Artwork Details
- Title: Jacket
- Design House: Alix (French, 1934–1942)
- Designer: Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs) (French, Paris 1903–1993 Var region)
- Date: fall/winter 1939
- Culture: French
- Medium: silk
- Credit Line: Purchase, Irene Lewisohn Bequest, 2002
- Object Number: 2002.366
- Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute
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Alix
Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs)
ca. 1936
Alix
Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs)
ca.1938
Alix
Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs)
ca. 1938
Alix
Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs)
1939
Alix
Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs)
1935
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