Dress

Created by hand from found materials, this dress was made for the Artisanal line of the Maison Martin Margiela, which combines the craftsmanship of the "petites mains" in haute couture ateliers with found, repurposed materials, upending notions of ‘high’ and ‘low’ in fashion. In this case, a dress for the fall/winter 1993–94 collection is made from a patchwork of four 1940s floral dresses sourced by the designer at the flea market. Its materiality (silk crepe) testifies of the rationing and utility fashions of the decade tainted by the Second World War, which nevertheless allowed women more sartorial freedom. The arrival of the New Look in 1947 brought back lush and luxurious materials but also restricted women's freedom of movement through a corseted waist. Illustrating the Benjaminian concept of the "Tigersprung," fashion's leap into the past to create an ever-changing present, this object folds together two different eras, the 1940s and the 1990s, and comments on the tradition of haute couture as well as the relationship between fashion and women's place in society.