[BA Fashion Essay] Haute Couture Luminaries: Madame Grès and Charles James

-BF-FH131 Cultural & Contextual Studies 1A: Modern Fashion History

Haute Couture Luminaries: Madame Gres and Charles James

Irissa Nur Khair BAFMIN1A / 20600

Stephanie Burt Lecturer AY2018/19 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Fashion Media and Industries

LASALLE College of the Arts Faculty of Design Singapore Accepted by the Faculty of Design, LASALLE College of the Arts, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Fashion Media and Industries

Stephanie Burt Lecturer I certify that the work being submitted for examination is my own account of my own

research, which has been conducted ethically. The data and results presented are the genuine data and results actually obtained by me during the conduct of the research.

Where I have drawn on the work, ideas and results of others, this has been appropriately acknowledged in the essay. The greater portion of the work described in the essay has been undertaken subsequent to my registration for the degree for which I am submitting this document. © IRISSA NUR KHAIR In submitting this work to LASALLE College of the Arts, I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations and policies of the college, and that the work is also subject to the college policy on intellectual property.

________________________________ Irissa Nur Khair

The 1930s showed to be a time of turmoil. The world was met by The Great Depression and its impact was no less severe than elsewhere. Ironically so, new forms of expression flourished in the culture of despair. Not only were they elegant, but they were also “buoyant, effervescent and escapist”. (Mears, 2014) This marked the rise of the Golden Age of fashion, lightness, curves and forms in France, picked up shortly after in America.

Madame Grès and Charles James were symbols of haute couture during an age of crisis. Given the fall of Parisian fashion houses in the 1940s that paved the rise of American couturiers, this presents an intriguing relationship between the two couturiers. This essay will explore the works of Madame Grès and Charles James, drawing contrasts between their first collections and elucidate how their creative visions were shaped by the events of their time. In the case of Grès and James, both share similar experiences from childhood revolving around familial objection. Both designers started their fashion journey as hat-makers before venturing into couture dressmaking. Grès, unable to fulfil her dream of becoming a sculptress, applied her sculpting techniques to her fabric forms. James began his career as a milliner to society ladies of Chicago, shaping hats directly onto his clients' head. He took to fashion “out of a compulsion to be involved in a business of which his father disapproved”. (DazedDigital, 2014) Nonetheless, this only fueled their passion to perfect their artistry in the form of dress.

Figure 1. Madame Grès live draping her model, Boris Lipnitzki, 1933

Figure 2. Charles James live draping his model, 1948 Grès and James design methodologies played a pivotal role in their designs,

elevating their name to that of fashion visionaries. Both adopted the same method of live draping, adapting the practice from their previous millinery experience, seen in Figures 1 and 2. James carried this practice into dressmaking, where he would drape, pin and cut immediately instead of making a sketch or pattern. Gres too had “‘never sewed, or cut patterns”’, (Lyssens, 2012) but instead draped directly on the body, ensuring fluid and movement and that the creation enhanced an individual’s silhouette. These techniques of ‘moulage’ and ‘drapage’ were in vogue then due to underlying tones of body consciousness in the 1930s. “The way we have been draping on a live body, as opposed to a mannequin, is a totally different way of working — much more sophisticated, and it gives a very effortless kind of exoticism,” said British designer Giles Deacon. (Suzy Menkes, 2011)

With the revival of classicism in art and design, a modern style of clothing was born. The clothing for the era was sombre and modest, a true reflection of the social and economic situation left behind by The Great Depression. More women wore clothing that enhanced the human form without restricting it. It is remarked that “innovative dressmakers began to construct clothing without padding and boning, inspired by the burgeoning, streamlined aesthetic and enriched by the growth of softer materials.” (Mears, 2014)

Figure 3. Charles James Ribbon Dressing Gown, 1938

Figure 4. Charles James Ribbon Ball Gown, 1946

Construction techniques employed by both couturiers were reflective of their

background. In 1937, James held his first showing in Paris; including garments made of “old silk ribbons from the firm of Colcombet.” (Coleman, 1984) His idea for making garments from ribbons was an outgrowth of his work with them as a milliner. The dressing gown in Figure 3 is a rare instance of this technique, constructed from actual ribbons in place of fabric strips. He continually reused and reworked silhouettes and elements he had developed in the 1930s, however, usually in differing combinations often resulting in wholly new compositions. The Ribbon gown seen in Figure 4 reflects the ostentatious era he would present it in of post-war 1940s, in comparison to the first version which was more conservative and observed the need to reuse materials during the recession. There was now the visible impression that the dresses were gossamer and mellifluous, exuding a more grand feel to a James ball gown.

Figure 5. Madame Grès Classic Grecian Dress, 1937

Figure 6. Madame Grès Classic Grecian Dress, 1958

Likewise, for Grès, the direct influence of her time as a sculptress is potent in her garments. Figure 5 is an early example of her most famous and recognizable design of hers, a classically derived floor-length, pleated gown. Primarily white and made from two uncut lengths of draped matte silk jersey to create an unstructured columnar form - “enhancing the female body without physically restricting its movement”. (Mears, 2005) The delicate pleats show her technical virtuosity when ordinary fabric is turned into Greco-Roman sculptures. She weaved the elements of classicism poetically into dressmaking, creating a new language through technique and structure. This is translated in Figure 6, where Grès pleated and tucked the silk jersey into a bodily-shaped fit to simulate a more defined waistline. The fabric is seamed together vertically so as to be continuous from the neckline to the hem, just like her designs in the 1930s. The art of fluting had been mastered, evidently due to the refined pleats from the waist down and the volutes and twists that crown the dress.

As with such similarities, they too shared a fair share of differences between them.

Figure 7. Madame Grès Grecian Evening Dresses (1938-1944)

Figure 8. Madame Grès Grecian Evening Dresses (1960-1970) This is reflected in Grès’s classical aesthetic - sober, timeless and utterly

feminine. The arresting characteristic of Grès’s oeuvre lies in the perfection of her craft, noting the three-dimensional, sculptural quality in her hallmark “Grecian” gowns seen in Figure 7. She was able to apply her techniques to fabric forms, having studied sculpture in her early years. This showed in her draping which many times “resembled the marble togas on classic Grecian and Roman sculptures”. (Colette, 2010) She “claimed control of her style and identity by making her draping more complex, adding tight pleats, which grew in size and made the dresses more fluid”. (Almond, 2011) The long swags of continuous fabric strips sewn on the front and back give it a sense of classical antiquity.

"For a dress to survive from one era to the next, it must be marked with an extreme purity,” once remarked by Madame Grès. (Sage, 2011) Grès had created the pastel gowns seen in Figure 4, possibly to reflect the elation of the post-Great Depression era. Yet, she still kept to her ancient aesthetic of Neoclassical sensibility in her gowns. The difference between the two dresses is shown through the abundance of fabric and elements added to the dress such as twisted waist-ropes and embellishments and colour palettes.

Figure 9. Charles James La Sirène Dress, 1939

Figure 10. Charles James La Sirène Dress, 1956 James’s oeuvre, in contrast, was “diverse and complex - a result of a restless

creative force that was constantly pushing the boundaries of convention”. (Reeder, 2010) Some garments were timeless and elegant, others controversial and idiosyncratic having insect-like features like the dresses in Figures 5 and 6. The surrealist transfiguration is evident in the La Sirène Dress, making the woman look like a seductive siren. The contrast is clear between the garments made in the 1930s and its future adaptation - the first created in black silk with sleeves. The latter, a strapless version with a scoop neckline in brown silk, revealing an even more figure-hugging waistline for its wearer. James' waist is still invariably cut on the curve, distinguishing a natural waist from a designed waist.

Regardless of the type of garment created by either couturier, they used the “female body as the point of reference rather than the defining factor”. (Reeder, 2010) Both couturiers had mastered their craft and elevated dressmaking from an “applied art form to a pure art form”, quoted by Cristobal Balenciaga.” (Fortini, 2014)

However, they differed greatly in perspective. Grès’s design philosophy had simply no external reason for existence. Just like the couturier herself, her garments were in their own time and were not aligned with a current trend or a resurrection of a fashion house. When interviewed by French writer F. Vergnaud in 1976, she said, “Simplicity and elegance are never boring: you can never get enough of them, and one single detail manages to suggest that touch of gaiety only you have!” (MackenzieSmith, 2018) This brief statement could very well summarize Grès’ enduring philosophy on clothes: she saw simplicity not only as a way of achieving a kind of aesthetic purity but as “a way to allow the wearer to shine more brightly than the clothes while moving about the world with ease”. (Lerma, 2017)

James characteristics were the opposite. His garments were made to make the woman not a magnificent version of herself but the unflinching ideal magnificent woman in James’s mind. He chose and carefully vetted those who could wear his designs, working exclusively within a group of sartorially adventuresome women from English high society. Placing great emphasis on fit, as exemplified with his need to live drape, he presented women with a shape that was not their own, otherwise known as the “graceful James shape”. (Martin, 1997) His method of imposing clothing to correct nature allowed real women with body faults to feel as if they were flawless.

In closing, James and Grès were fashion luminaries far ahead of their time.

James designed for the ideal woman he envisioned in his mind as a form of escape from the economic turmoil, creating the ‘perfect woman’. Gres designed in search for purity of form, elevating the simple to the sublime with classic and ethereal clothing akin to that of Greek sculptures.

Their lifelong commitment to perfecting their craft have influenced designers to create clothes that follow the movement of real living bodies without compromising the intricacies of haute couture. To quote Christian LaCroix, “Haute couture should be fun, foolish and almost unwearable”. (Oxford University Press, 1999) (word count: 1575)

SOURCE REFERENCES (para 1, line 4)Patricia Mears, 8 April 2014 - Elegance in the Age of Crisis: Fashions of the 1930s

(para 3, line 8-9) Zing Tsjeng, 5 May 2014 -The Secret History of Charles James (para 4, line 5-6) Siska Lyssens, 12 September 2012 - Madame Gres: Sculptural Fashion (para 4, line 9-12) Suzy Menkes, 18 April 2011 - The Legacy of Shape and Drape (para 5, line 5-7) Patricia Mears, 8 April 2014 - Elegance in the Age of Crisis: Fashions of the 1930s (para 6, line 3) Elizabeth Coleman, 1 November 1984 - The Genius of Charles James (para 9, line 4-5) Colette HQ - Madame Grès – Draper Extraordinaire (para 9, line 7) Kevin Almond, August 2011 - Review of Madame Gres: Couture at Work (para 10, line 1-2) Alexandria Sage, 8 July 2011 - Madame Gres Paris exhibit is ode to draped fashion (para 12, line 1-2) Jan Glier Reeder, 10 February 2015 - High Style: Masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (para 13, line 1-2) Jan Glier Reeder, 10 February 2015 - High Style: Masterworks from the Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (para 13, line 3-4) Amanda Fortini, 2 May 2014 - “He was the Einstein of Fashion” (para 14, line 7-9) Stevie Mackenzie-Smith, 18 July 2018 - The Female Couturier Whose Gowns Were Sculptures in Cloth (para 14, line 11-13) Martin Lerma, 8 November 2017 - Madame Gres: Fashion’s First Minimalist (para 15, line 7) Richard Martin, 1997 - Charles James (para 16, line 9-10) Oxford University Press, 1999 - The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

IMAGE REFERENCES Figure 1: Madame Gres and Boris Lipnitzki, 1933 https://www.vogue.it/en/people-are-talking-about/vogue-arts/2011/03/madame-grescouture-paris

Figure 2: Charles James and model, 1948 https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2014/05/08/charles-james-engineering-elegance/ Figure 3: Charles James Ribbon Dress, 1938 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/159231 Figure 4: Charles James Ribbon Dress, 1946 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/155873 Figure 5: Madame Gres Evening Dress, 1937 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/155859 Figure 6: Madame Gres Evening Dress, 1958 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/81122 Figure 7: Madame Gres: Sphinx of Fashion - Grecian Evening Dresses https://www.bloomsburyfashioncentral.com/products/berg-fashionlibrary/exhibition/madame-gres-sphinx-of-fashion/left-grecian-evening-dress-middleevening-dress-right-grecian-evening-dress Figure 8: Madame Gres: Sphinx of Fashion - Grecian Evening Dresses, 2013 https://thecitizensoffashion.com/2013/01/30/madame-gres-silk-sculptures/ Figure 9: Charles James La Sirène Dress, 1939 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/159135 Figure 10: Charles James La Sirène Dress, 1956 https://www.bloomsburyfashioncentral.com/products/berg-fashionlibrary/museum/the-museum-at-fit/evening-dress-13937