Mannequin

James’s approach to shaping his designs was anchored in his manipulation of the contours of the body. In some instances, the additive padding of a form appears to approximate the figure of a client, but that is not necessarily the case. James stated explicitly that he padded out the form to the shape he wished to give to the wearer. The stuffing of crumpled tissue to represent the “wall of air” between the dress form and his pattern development for a short jacket suggests his strategy and hands-on approach. The grain of a garment is penciled in, but important seam and design lines are articulated by black tape. One form with a modified “Josephine” (empire) bodice, which he called his “string frame,” has a skirt with hoops in a silhouette first established by verticals that were splayed open and stapled to the floor in the desired dimension. He then overlaid the form with stiffened muslin to develop his sculptural shapes.