Dress #83.2: Charles James dress in green

This hand-stitched paper dress is based on a green wool mohair sheath made by Charles James in 1952-1953 as a sample for New York ready-to-wear manufacturer Samuel Winston. That relationship eventually ended in a lawsuit for breach of contract, as James was convinced that Winston was stealing his designs for one of his other labels, without crediting James. James eventually won back pay, but did not succeed with the claim of piracy.

The dress is simpler than James’ usual designs, but still uses his trademark asymmetry with the left side seam moved to the back and turned into an off-centre flare. The original dress is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession 2013.334a, b). A version in grey is held by the Chicago History Museum (accession 1959.4861-b)

Charles James is considered by the Met to be the ‘only American to work in the true couture tradition’. His dresses were complicated constructions, many of them created through draping on the bodies of his customers, or using custom dress forms that combined the measurements of his customer with the fanciful contours used to sculpt the dresses into the desired shapes.

The dress is six inches tall, stitched by hand on 8x10 inch 100% cotton watercolour paper, which means that it will pop right into any commercial frame in that size, and be ready to hang on your wall.

Materials: Nepalese lokta paper and cotton floss on cotton paper; 24.5 x 20.3 cm (10 x 8")