Dimensions: height 243 mm, width 192 mm
Copyright: Rijks Museum: Open Domain
Here's an anonymous drawing of a Poiret dress, rendered in gold ink on paper. I love to think about the back and forth between the hand and the mind when making something. It feels like it's moving from the top of the dress, with its ornate yoke, right down to the hem. I'm seeing so many different textures: the dense, close-knit lines of the skirt against the open chevrons of the bodice. It makes me want to get lost in the rhythm of making those marks. But who was this artist? What was she thinking? I imagine she was dreaming of this dress and trying to capture the essence of it on paper. I love the idea of fashion illustration as a painterly practice. It reminds me of the work of Erté or Christian Bérard, artists who blurred the lines between fashion, theater, and painting. They were all in conversation with each other. So maybe this anonymous artist was part of that too.
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This gown from the house of Poiret features an ‘arrow feather’ motif known as Yabane. This ancient Japanese pattern is still widely used on kimonos today. The plate was part of a series depicting twelve gowns created by different fashion houses and was published in the December 1925 issue of Gazette du Bon Ton. The actual dress by Poiret is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
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