Evening dress

Mme. Eta Hentz

spring/summer 1944 · rayon, beads · Costume Institute

Madame Eta Hentz was born in Budapest and educated at the Hungarian Royal State Academy of Industrial Arts. During the 1920s she was involved in a business partnership with Maurice Rentner for a company called Ren-Eta. Then in the late 1930s, she started her own company with Ann Sadowsky. Her clothes were thought to be flattering, especially for matronly figures and were readily available on a ready-to-wear basis. She is most known for her Grecian themed collection of 1943, featured here, which received much praise. This elegant evening dress is a superb adaptation of a classical garment for modern-day dress. The upper portion of the dress resembles a Greek chlamys or a Roman palla, while the fluted skirt mimics the bottom half of a Roman stola.

Artist

Mme. Eta Hentz

Date

spring/summer 1944

Medium

rayon, beads

Culture

American

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Madame Eta Hentz, 1946