Charles James: Beyond Fashion
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CHARLES JAMES: BEYOND FASHION (Charles James Audio Quotes- in CI Stairwell) “The best design reveals itself during a long fatiguing process of digging into the subconscious.” “When I got the Neiman Marcus prize in '53, I pretended to lose my luggage and wore blue jeans with a white silk tuxedo and pumps. Mr. Marcus then was obliged to explain that this was the new style--he simply meant that blue jeans were far better cut than the average trousers of that period. They’re functional and, being functional, highly sexual.” “Did you know that the dressmaker Paul Poiret wrote me a marvelous letter once saying, ‘I give you my crown: you do in cut what I have done in color.’ ” (CI Stairwell Image) Photo: Michael A. Vaccaro, 1952 GALLERY 1: Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch Gallery (Intro Panel) Charles James: Beyond Fashion Charles James (1906-1978) is an artist whose mode of expression was fashion. As with every artist, James has an autograph—a distinctive pattern of details and signature flourishes that distinguishes his work. Whether for day or evening, draped or tailored, a James design often shares an approach to, or characteristics of, his other creations. Essentially self-taught, he was someone for whom a compelling idea or innovation could be subject to a lifetime of revision and refinement. Even after the closing of his house, he continued to perfect designs from his earliest collections. Among the hallmarks of his work are his architectural cut, seen most clearly in his ball gowns. In this gallery, his spirals and wrapping of the body, his use of draping and folding to resolve the aesthetic disposition of excess material of a pattern piece, and his insistence on transforming the conditions of the natural body into his platonic ideal are explored. His preference for the elimination of conventional darts and seams—or their use in unprecedented ways—together with a clear predilection for asymmetry suggest his direct hands-on approach. Paul Poiret noted that because of his beginnings as a milliner, James, in addition to being a master at color, addressed fabric with an aggressive vigor that set him apart from his contemporaries. Certainly, Jamesian leitmotifs can be seen at every stage of his development as a designer—from his hats in the 1920s to his dresses in the 1950s. For James, the creative process was one of constant evolution. metmuseum.org/charlesjames #charlesjames 1 (SPIRALS & WRAPS GROUP) Taxi Dress, ca. 1932 Black wool ribbed knit Purchase, Alan W. Kornberg Gift, 2013 (2013.309) Catalogue text: James considered this dress one of his most important designs, both commercially and artistically. Though difficult to manufacture—one side of the top and the spiral wrap-over skirt being made without seams—it was the first dress to be sold in a department store’s accessories department, along with sweaters, in sealed cellophane packages. It was made in two sizes and sold at Best & Co. in 1933–34 for twenty-two dollars. James conceived the spiral design in 1929, and this sample piece in a novel ribbed wool appears to date from before his commercial version for Best’s, exemplifying how the designer continuously refined his ideas. Dress, ca. 1950 Navy brushed wool twill Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. Joseph Love, 1967 (2009.300.592) Catalogue text: A James pattern is challenging to understand, not because it is complicated but because it defies convention. This dress demonstrates his impulse to eliminate superfluous cut lines and, when possible, merge separate pattern pieces into one. Its two-piece skirt has one center back seam. James eliminated the right back waist seam, resulting in an eccentric construction where the left bodice is a continuation of the right skirt panel. Graduated buttons, a curved lapel, and a single patch pocket shaped like an apostrophe are the only ornament other than the arcing seams. 2 Evening Coat, late 1920s-early 1930s Black silk velvet and fox fur Purchase, Costume Institute Benefit Fund, Friends of The Costume Institute Gifts, and Acquisitions Fund, 2013 (2013.418) Catalogue text: This elegant minimalist construction is the earliest example of James’s spiral draping in The Costume Institute’s collection. The main body of the coat is one piece of silk velvet, horizontally wrapped counterclockwise. The long sleeves are a simple raglan construction with a triangular, fur-edged piece contour-seamed to the coat’s body along the shoulder line. The piece is balanced and draped to give the impression from the front of a wide-cuffed sleeve and, from the back, of a scarf. Cocktail Dress, 1936 Black silk satin Courtesy of Sir Brendan Parsons, 7th Earl of Rosse, Birr Castle, Ireland (SL.8.2014.7.2) Catalogue text: A black metal zipper at the left side of this elegant dress emphasizes the oppositional spiraling seams that crisscross from the front neckline, continue around the waist, and meet at the center back. Crisscrossing folded extensions of the front bodice pieces continue the theme and form the high-throated neckline. In other James designs, similar wrapping elements of the front bodice serve as a neckerchief-like drape or a more conventional halter. 3 Scarf Evening Dress, 1937–38 Black silk crepe Purchase, Annette de la Renta Gift, 2013 (2013.301) Label text: James’s writings indicate he conceived the design for this dress as one piece that spiraled around the body with a single diagonal seam running from the knee to the shoulder. The logistics of fitting and the limitations of fabric width, however, necessitated that it be cut in three pieces—the scarf/front bodice, the skirt/back bodice, and a triangular piece that extends the skirt into a wrap—thereby allowing, as James put it, “for a leg to emerge while seated. Catalogue text: This dress with an integral scarf is draped on the semi-bias, with a diagonal seam across the front from underarm to knee. The seam begins several inches forward of the usual side seam. That subtle shift appears to narrow the bodice and skirt panels and thus became known as the “false profile” seam. The individualized fit of the unforgivingly narrow sheath was achieved by first making a conventionally cut organdy sheath to the client’s dimensions and proportions. The crepe was then draped and manipulated through calage (molding by pressing, pulling, and steaming the cloth “off-grain”) to conform to the undersheath’s measurements. In 1976 a popular design by Halston incorporated James’s asymmetrical neckline, formed when the scarf wraps over the shoulder. Figure-Eight Dinner Dress, 1939 Green-gray silk satin Purchase, Costume Institute Benefit Fund, Friends of The Costume Institute Gifts, and Acquisitions Fund, 2013 (2013.406) Label text: This ingenious design introduced both modesty and freedom of movement into eveningwear. Lore has it that James first conceived it by cutting a crescent shape in the center of the long end of a beach towel, centering it between the legs, and wrapping them in the form of a figure eight. In this more resolved version, the two sides of the fabric wrap counterclockwise around the body, starting from the leg division, extending far enough to cover the center front and back: the front half wraps around the left leg (ending at right back) and the back half wraps around the right leg (ending at left front), causing the hem to form a figure eight. The waist piece, which starts at the right side, is separate and does not take part in the figure- eight movement. Catalogue text: A series of wrapping pattern pieces is incorporated in both the bodice and skirt of this dinner dress. While the bodice discloses the complications of its cut, the greater innovation is in James’s novel construction of the skirt. It was conceived as a figure-eight spiral, beginning at the right front side it wraps around the left leg, passing between the legs, then wrapping over the right leg to cross to the left side back. As with many of James’s constructions, the skirt is only comprehensible when the garment is taken apart. 4 Evening dress, 1932 Black silk-rayon satin-faced chiffon crepe Purchase, Costume Institute Benefit Fund, Friends of The Costume Institute Gifts and Acquisitions Fund, 2013 (2013.401) Catalogue text: James was expert at the implementation of bias, but often deviated from the use of “true” bias, or the angling of the fabric 45 degrees. In this rare instance, he describes his design as “pure bias” with the exploitation of the natural draping qualities of the luxuriously supple satin-faced crepe. The gown’s surplice top has an extended shoulder-line creating the effect of short cap sleeves. James notes that unlike typical kimono-sleeve constructions that angle 90 degrees from the body, he has draped his design with the front of the sleeve line at a precise 33 degrees and the back sleeve edge at 45 degrees from the body. In addition, rather than a shoulder seam, James has used a short neckline dart in a practice he calls “à cheval” to leave the main body of the sleeve undisrupted. The skirt is no less considered with a center front and back seam, both originating from the hem to split in a “Y” at the pelvis. The resulting extensions are two sets of criss-crossing waist ties that cinch the gown and end in small bows with asymmetrical streamers. The designer was especially proud of the fact that the dress, made in two sizes, was protean in its accommodation of a large range of figures.