Two-piece Evening Gown

Madame Grès (1899-1993), the “Sculptress of fashion designers”, was famous for her skilfully draped clothing. Since the 1930s founding of Alix, her first company, each new collection presented new variations of her draped pieces. She presented the bare midriff for the first time in 1973 in the form of pleated dresses with separate tops. The top of this dress consists of a 280 cm long and 160 cm wide length of the finest jersey. The plethora of fabric is gathered into 9 cm wide ends that are reinforced with rod inserts and closed at the side with hook and eyes. From there, the length is led as a transversely running sash and entwined with the shoulder strap on the left side. At the left shoulder it again is gathered to 9 cm and held by interior bands. The sash end flows out in front, hardly discernable in the plethora of the pleated skirt. The dress has a narrow gathered waistband that contains the abundant fabric — a total length of 850 cm. On the left, the skirt closes with hook and eye as well as zipper. The fine and densely gathered jersey lends sculptural quality to the flowing folds.To receive the fabric quality and desired fabric widths required by her, Madame Grès worked closely together with fabric manufacturers. Recent research into her oeuvre has revealed that Madame Grès rarely used pure silk jersey and rather preferred a mixture of viscose or acetate with synthetic or natural fibres.