Ensemble

Charles James

early 1950s · wool · Costume Institute

James was proud of this coat’s tailoring details, especially the use of the hand-stitched welts to highlight the arching curve of the side waist seams. Of greater interest, however, is the coat’s assertion of an amplified hourglass shape onto the body of the wearer. The waist is raised to the lower ribcage, a point on the body with a relatively immutable dimension. The coat then burgeons at the hips with the planarity of a cutout paper doll. The emphatic silhouette makes the shape of the real body beneath difficult to ascertain.

Artist

Charles James

Date

early 1950s

Medium

wool

Culture

American

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Purchase, Costume Institute Benefit Fund, Friends of The Costume Institute Gifts, and Acquisitions Fund, 2013