Coat

Charles James|F. Ducharne Silk Company

1956 · wool · Costume Institute

This short coat or jacket is similar in concept to late nineteenth-century dolmans, which were capelike wraps with sleeves. The prototype for James’s design was a cape for his infant son, Charles Jr. It had elliptically cut armholes to help the child orient his arms upward instead of splaying outward. When the designer adapted the style for adults, he replaced the infant’s sleeve pattern with one derived from the connecting elbow joint of a sewer pipe.

Artist

Charles James|F. Ducharne Silk Company

Date

1956

Medium

wool

Culture

American

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

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