Left: Charles James (American, born Great Britain, 1906–1978). Evening Dress, 1948. Black silk satin and black silk velvet. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Millicent Huttleston Rogers, 1949 (2009.300.734). Right: Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887–1986). Black Iris, 1926. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1969 (69.278.1).
«As your eyes adjust to the dim light in the exhibition Charles James: Beyond Fashion, text appears on the glass before you and guides how you should consider the dresses behind it—if you can even call them dresses! Charles James revolutionized the twentieth-century fashion establishment through his idiosyncratic transformation of stiff millinery material into soft, fluid lines that mirror his notion of a woman's ideal form. The lines of his dresses emulate the modern art of Georgia O'Keeffe.»
James was always the creative one in his affluent family. His military officer father disapproved of his artistic ventures and forced him to adopt a pseudonym. Despite this, he continued his dream of designing clothing for women.
James was clearly an inventor, so, very appropriately, the exhibition utilizes cutting-edge technology that quite literally delves deeper into the engineering behind his designs. Mechanisms such as x-rays, close-up videos, and unusual projections all help you better understand the underpinnings of James's designs. The projectors mirror the details and display them on giant tablets, illuminating magnified specifics of the individual dress as it unfolds. Collectively, these mechanisms reveal that the dresses are constructed mainly of single pieces of fabric that are both complex and incredibly simple.
This exhibition wouldn't have been possible if James hadn't encouraged his clients to donate his dresses to the Brooklyn Museum. It also wouldn't have been possible if technology were not so advanced. Here, we understand Charles James's art through science, which would have made him smile since he saw himself as an engineer of fashion.