1920 – Modern at V&A

Apr 152011

1920 to modern clothing at the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)

Catherine Walker’s evening dress and jacket, 1989
Better known as Lady Diana Spencer’s „Elvis“ dress
Silk with oyster pearls and sequins, embroidery by S. Lock Ltd.
This dress has its own page. You can reach it by clicking on the dress picture.

Dress, Spring / Summer 2005, Cloé
Silk chiffon, trimmed with silk grosgrain
This gown, especially the draping over the right shoulder, very strongly reminded me of a gown pictured in the book „Fashion“ (from the Kyoto Costume Institute, Japan), by Madame (Alyx) Grès from 1944. The biggest difference is that the Grès gown was made of silk jersey, but the stitching of the fine pleating is identical.

„La Flute“ Day dress, 1924
Paul Poiret
Satin trimmed with applied gilt braid and part-lined with silk chiffon

Evening dress and jacket, about 1920
Mariano Fortuny
Jacket: printed velvet, lined with silk and trimmed with silk braid
Dress pleated silk satin
Unfortunately, due to the black fabric, it was almost impossible for me to photograph the magnificient Fortuny pleating. If you would like to see better pictures, go to the „Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany“ page, on which I have published pictures of the same gown, just in red color (about 3/4 down the page – red gown).

Coatdress, 1986
Bruce Oldfield
Silk velvet and mink

and

Jacket, about 1985
Scott Crolla
Silk damask

„Watteau“ Evening dress, 1996
Vivienne Westwood
Silk faille and taffeta

Wedding dress, worn on 15th August 1976
Neymar
Organza, embroidered with beads and applied flowers, lined with cotton and net
The design was inspired by Anne Boelyn’s costume in the film „Anne of the Thousand Days“ (1969).

Dress, 2000
Zac Posen
Leather and metal
This dress is made entirely out of strips of leather, joined with hundreds of hooks and eyes. If you look really careful, you can see the small spaces between the leather strips, especially in the third picture.

Evening dress, 1965
Hubert de Givenchy
Embroidered silk and velvet

Evening dress, 1968
Gerard Pipart for Nina Ricci
Cotton and silk
The interesting thing about this gown is the following:
If you look at it from further away, it looks like an ordinary and very colorful printed dress. But if you take a closer look, you can see that the floral pattern is, actually, a lace overlay over a matching green fabric. Beautiful.

Evening dress, 1970
Pierre Cardin
Chiffon
Look, it’s a red Elven gown! *lol*…

Miss. Jane, 2002
Anissa-Jane
This sculptural garment is made from brown paper with denim, fringe. The artist has created an ‚invisible map‘ over the surface of the paper by running it through with an unthreaded needle. The pattern traces textile trade routes and Britain’s control over cotton exports from India in the 17th and 18th centuries.