Dress
Irish designer Lainey Keogh names her gown after Venus, the Roman Aphrodite. Like a chiton, it is girdled, but here, rather than to adjust the garment's fullness, the cinching lines actually anchor the loose fall of monofilaments into place. In the absence of the stitched bands, an inadvertent exposure of the body would be impossible to control. As in the case of designers Thierry Mugler and John Galliano, Keogh combines disparate references. Her one-shouldered gown suggests Sandro Botticelli's use of hair as a device of modesty in his painting The Birth of Venus, but the long golden tresses covering the nude body also conjure up images of Lady Godiva on her mythic ride through the streets of medieval Coventry.
Artwork Details
- Title: Dress
- Designer: Lainey Keogh (Irish, born 1957)
- Date: fall/winter 1998–99
- Culture: Irish
- Medium: a,c,d) synthetic fiber, Lurex; b) aluminum, metal, jade, wood
- Credit Line: Gift of Lainey Keogh, 2003
- Object Number: 2003.487a–d
- Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute
More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Sybil Connolly
1950–69
Sybil Connolly
ca. 1960
Tom Binns
1994
Tom Binns
1994
Tom Binns
ca. 1992
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.