Evening dress

Designer Charles James American

Not on view

The skirt of this dress is an especially exuberant rendering of James’s spiral draping. He cut away the below-knee-length hem as it winds clockwise over itself until it terminates in a disengaged point at the left front waist. The narrow underskirt, barely visible, suggests a continuation of the spiral but is cut separately. Here James exploited taffeta’s natural body and ability to hold its form to exaggerate the skirt’s animated and layered effect.

Evening dress, Charles James (American, born Great Britain, 1906–1978), silk, American

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