Evening dress

Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs)

1939 · cotton · Costume Institute

A one-of-a-kind piece from a master of fabric manipulation; garments with the "Alix" label are fairly rare. The designer worked under that label in the early 1930s, before taking on the name "Alix Grès." The stiff glazed cotton is idiosyncratic for Gres--silk jersey was her signature fabric--but the bodice treatment foreshadows her work with draping and gathering. The inventive, but labor-intensive, construction of the skirt also presages her later work in its predilection for perfectionism and eye for detail.

Artist

Madame Grès (Germaine Émilie Krebs)

Date

1939

Medium

cotton

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 Rodman A. Heeren, 1961