Evening dress

Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs)

fall/winter 1979–80 · silk · Costume Institute

Madame Alix Grès' career spanned five decades and throughout them all she excelled in her ability to manipulate fabric and use its innate characteristics to enhance her designs. Grès used silk jersey to create the classically inspired gowns she introduced in the 1930s. She turned to taffeta in the 1970s and 1980s to execute her more sculptural, voluminous forms. The crisp, stiffness of the taffeta lends itself here to Grès' signature technique of working fabric into a dramatically asymmetrical form.

Artist

Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs)

Date

fall/winter 1979–80

Medium

silk

Culture

French

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mrs. William Randolph Hearst, Jr., 1986