Dinner dress

Elsa Schiaparelli

1934 · silk · Costume Institute

In the early 1930s, women's apparel was marked by the use of the body-hugging bias-cut. This gown, made from an innovative woven stretch cloth, the result of a high-twist yarn with a crimped, heat-pressed surface, mimics the body-conscious fit of a bias dress. Cut without sideseams, the gown has a narrow centerback panel that flares into a fishtail hem. Although it achieves its fit through the elastic structure of the cloth rather than the bias-cut, the gown's component pattern pieces conform to the period's impulse to violate the strict recto-verso construction of the 1920s, and the unexpected disposition of seams that are often the consequence of bias construction.

Artist

Elsa Schiaparelli

Date

1934

Medium

silk

Culture

French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Gift of Miss Irene Lewisohn and Mrs. Alice Lewisohn Crowley, 1946