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Evening dress

1958
Not on view
Grès, working earlier as Alix, created dresses in shafts of fabric, the diverse fluting of which served on the body like the entasis of a classical column. Seaming together fabric vertically so as to be continuous from hem to neckline, Grès pleated and tucked the materials into a shaping suitable to the body: the same fabric is buoyant and fluid when release-pleated from the waist down. She simulated a waist seam by tight tucking that continues through the bodice, and crowned the dress with volutes and twists. This tour-de-force of material rendered in diverse ways accounts for the tempered ergonomics of such dresses. Their wearers have testified that they felt secure and not immodest in these dresses, so organic was their creation. In this example, only one piece of fabric was added to the column: a small triangle was inserted under the arm to complete the structure, but otherwise the entire dress is conceived as one cylinder.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Evening dress
  • Designer: Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs) (French, Paris 1903–1993 Var region)
  • Date: 1958
  • Culture: French
  • Medium: silk
  • Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Leon L. Roos, 1973
  • Object Number: 1973.104.2a, b
  • Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute

More Artwork

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Ensemble, Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs) French, linen, French
Ensemble
Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs)
ca. 1982
Ensemble, Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs) French, angora, probably French
Ensemble
Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs)
1981–83
Evening ensemble, Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs) French, silk, French
Evening ensemble
Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs)
ca. 1980
Bracelet, Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs) French, plastic, French
Bracelet
Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs)
1960s
Evening ensemble, Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs) French, silk, French
Evening ensemble
Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs)
ca. 1968

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