"Lampshade"

Charles James

ca. 1955 · rayon, silk/cotton · Costume Institute

James’s historicist outlook and aesthetic for eccentric sculptural shapes coalesce in this unorthodox yet engagingly dramatic design. To the period ideal of the sheathed female figure, James suspended a wide bell-shaped hem construction, as if the panniers of an eighteenth-century court gown had slipped down around the legs. The shape, not unlike its Rococo prototype, is supported by concentric and transverse boning. Of the James sheath designs spouting knee-length flounces, including the Tree and the Tulip gowns, the Lampshade is singular in its tight wrapping of fabric over a supporting understructure.

Artist

Charles James

Date

ca. 1955

Medium

rayon, silk/cotton

Culture

American

Department

Costume Institute

Credit line

Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009