2009
RAF SIMONS
for JIL SANDER
Dress
Spring/summer 2009
Jil Sander, German, founded 1968
Raf Simons, Belgian, born 1968
Black silk georgette printed with white dots and embroidered with black beads with black synthetic fringe
Purchase, Allison Sarofim Gift, 2010 (2010.3.1)
1925
MADELEINE VIONNET
Evening Dress
1925
Madeleine Vionnet, French, 1876–1975
Ivory silk crepe overlaid with silk fringe
Gift of Mrs. Sophie Gimbel, 1946 (C.I.46.16.10)
Raf Simons opened his spring/summer 2009 collection for Jil Sander with an image of Man Ray’s Noire et blanche. The photograph of Kiki de Montparnasse holding an African sculpture was first published in French Vogue in 1926 and reflected the French avant-garde’s interest in African art in the early twentieth century. The designs that followed Simons’s opening image were inspired by the aesthetic of “primitivism” and interpretations of African adornment in 1920s fashion. This dress is constructed of unlined black fringe draped and sewn to straps and rectangular panels of black silk georgette printed with white dots and embroidered with black beads in a pattern reminiscent of mud cloth.
Madeleine Vionnet’s evening dress of ivory silk crepe and fringe from 1925 exemplifies the style evoked in Simons’s collection. Its planar silhouette, cut on the straight grain with minimal seaming, is typical of the period. Vionnet emphasizes the garment’s vertical line by bisecting the front and back panels with draped silk cord tacked at the center. She extends the line beyond the hem on each side with lengths of cut fringe.
Madeleine Vionnet’s evening dress of ivory silk crepe and fringe from 1925 exemplifies the style evoked in Simons’s collection. Its planar silhouette, cut on the straight grain with minimal seaming, is typical of the period. Vionnet emphasizes the garment’s vertical line by bisecting the front and back panels with draped silk cord tacked at the center. She extends the line beyond the hem on each side with lengths of cut fringe.