1949
JACQUES GRIFFE
Cocktail Dress
1949
Jacques Griffe, French, 1917–1996
Black silk taffeta
Promised Gift of Sandy Schreier (L.2018.61.64)
1997
YOHJI YAMAMOTO
Dress
Autumn/winter 1997–98
Yohji Yamamoto, Japanese, born 1943
Black synthetic organza
Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Yohji Yamamoto, 2000 (2009.300.604)
With its fitted bodice and ample skirt, this cocktail dress typifies the ebullient silhouette that dominated 1950s fashion, while its symmetry reflects the decade’s prevailing mood for stability and conformity. Intricate surface embellishment adds texture to the black expanse of the skirt. Worked by the skilled artisans at the House of Griffe, shirred taffeta bands form a chevron pattern and are scaled to the skirt’s flare, enhancing the overall balance of the composition.
Throughout his career, Yohji Yamamoto has created designs that challenge the aesthetic and technical conventions of Western dress but also respond to its history by reconfiguring traditional forms. In this dress, the designer has abstracted the romantic mid-twentieth-century silhouette, disrupting its strict symmetry with bold, asymmetric draping. Rather than further manipulate the fabric or introduce applied decoration, Yamamoto has relied on a textile with inherent texture for surface interest. While the full skirt shapes of the late 1940s and the 1950s were often constructed of flared pattern pieces with rounded hemlines, this example is composed of a rectilinear panel, introducing sharper angles and irregular shapes and generating a more improvisational quality.
Throughout his career, Yohji Yamamoto has created designs that challenge the aesthetic and technical conventions of Western dress but also respond to its history by reconfiguring traditional forms. In this dress, the designer has abstracted the romantic mid-twentieth-century silhouette, disrupting its strict symmetry with bold, asymmetric draping. Rather than further manipulate the fabric or introduce applied decoration, Yamamoto has relied on a textile with inherent texture for surface interest. While the full skirt shapes of the late 1940s and the 1950s were often constructed of flared pattern pieces with rounded hemlines, this example is composed of a rectilinear panel, introducing sharper angles and irregular shapes and generating a more improvisational quality.