All Photos By Gail
If you have a young daughter whose heart’s desire is to be a medieval fairy princess for Halloween, you can pick up this very lovely period costume in the gift shop at the Cloisters Museum in Upper Manhattan! Floral Headwreaths are sold separately!
All Photos By Gail
Paco Rabanne presented his first fashion collection in 1966. It was entitled 12 Dresses in Unwearable Materials and included garments made from links of plastic fastened with metal hoops. Rabanne had proven that fabric, needle and thread were not altogether necessary to clothing design, and he quickly gained fame for his defiance of tradition.
Ready-to-wear Dress Circa 1966: Silver and Black Plastic Discs, Metal Hoops. Photographed in the Museum at FIT in Manhattan.
All Photos By Gail
With its petal-like stole, this evening gown, The Tree (1955), transforms the wearer into a flower, giving her a sensual elegance. Couturier Charles James (1906 – 1978) often envisioned his clients as exotic flowers and he believed that fashion should arouse the mating instinct. Ooh!
Psychologist Nancy Etcoff writes, “Flowers are alluring landing strips for pollinating insects: They are the plant worlds sex objects.” Think about that next time you see a flower.
Charles James, Photographed in 1946, By Irving Penn
Photographed as part of the Force of Nature Exhibit, on Through November 18th, 2017 at at The Museum at FIT, Located at the Southwest corner of Seventh Avenue and 27th Street, in NYC.
All Photos By Gail
Paula Douglas, also known as Gretchen Fetchen, was one of the early participants in the San Francisco Acid Test happenings organized by Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters in the mid-1960s. The events were designed as gatherings to promote consciousness expansion and creativity through the use of LSD, which was legal at the time.
Gretchen Fetchen’s Acid Test Dress (1965) and painted Orange Leather Boots reflects the Merry Pranksters’ rejection of norms of appearance through the embracing of exuberant Day-Glo colors. The garment also features a star, together with red, white and blue stripes — symbols of the Merry Pranksters.
Acid Test Dress and Boots Installation View. Photographed as Part of the Counter Couture Exhibit, Up Though August 20th, 2017 at the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC
Photos By Gail
Yves Saint Laurent’s fall 1965 collection was inspired by the paintings of Piet Mondrian. While it became one of Saint Laurent’s most famous collections, other designers had introduced similar designs before him. The Montreal Gazette claimed that color-blocked dresses by Michele Roiser had inspired Saint Laurent to “add a few black lines” to his own creations. View some of the collections here: https://teranicouture.com/collection/evening-dresses-2016-and-2017
YSL dress seen here with a color block design by Lousi Feraud (circa 1967) on the left.
All Photos By Gail
Bergdorf Goodman was an early supporter of CD Greene and first featured his designs in its store windows in June 1990.
Tina Turner Wearing CD Greene’s Design On Stage
In 1996, Greene was commissioned to create Tina Turner’s wardrobe for her Wildest Dreams tour. For this mini dress, he selected a sheer white net and Swarovski crystals to contrast with Turner’s skin, so that she she would stand out onstage
Photographed at the Black Fashion Designers Exhibit at the Museum at FIT in Manhattan. This Exhibit is Free to the Public and Runs Through May 16th, 2017.
Installation View
All Photos By Gail
This dress, part of Dutch designer Iris van Herpin’s Autumn 2102 haute couture collection, was 3D printed using a process called Stereolithography. It was built layer by layer in a vessel of liquid polymer. The polymer hardens when struck by a laser beam. This technique allows for more texture and transparency than selective laser sintering. Graphic and organic elements come together to evoke dimensional lacework.
Fabricated from ark orange epoxy by Materialise, hand-sanded and hand-sprayed with a technical transparent resin, this is the second 3D printed dress by van Herpin to be featured as part of this blog’s Eye On Design series.
Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art as Part of the Manus X Machina Fashion Exhibit, which has Now Closed.
