1994
AZZEDINE ALAÏA

Dress

Spring/summer 1994
Azzedine Alaïa, French, born Tunisia, 1935
Black synthetic chenille knit and white synthetic knit
Purchase, Funds from various donors, by exchange, 2015 (2016.57)

1939
CHARLES JAMES

“La Sirène” Evening Dress

1939
Charles James, American, born Great Britain, 1906–1978
Black peau de soie
Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Erik Lee Preminger in memory of his mother, Gypsy Rose Lee, 1993 (2009.300.588)

While many designers in the early to mid-1990s looked to street styles for inspiration, others continued to be drawn to the traditions of haute couture. Known for his exacting standards and for his pairing of traditional couture techniques with innovative materials, Azzedine Alaïa produced meticulously constructed, body-conscious fashions that helped define the 1980s through their overt sexuality and continued their primacy in the 1990s. In this dress, alternating bands of black and white knit highlight the contours of the body. The black sections are composed of “houpette,” a material developed for Alaïa that uses short tufts of nylon to simulate the look and feel of swansdown.

Alaïa’s dress is clearly informed by Charles James’s “La Sirène” design. James named the dress after the mythical Greek sirens whose seductive singing lured sailors to shipwreck. The title relates to the gown’s alluring shape, formed by horizontal release tucks that allow it to cleave to the body’s contours. As the series of tucks also suggest the appearance of a segmented crustacean, the style was popularly known as the “lobster dress.”