Charles James Exhibition, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

I was lucky enough to go to New York earlier in the year, and as a special treat, I was allowed to go the Charles James exhibition sans children.

The exhibition was opened in the new Anna Wintour Costume Institute at the Museum, and what better way to debut a new space, than by having a plethora of beautiful gowns and exquisite tailoring.

Charles James was an Anglo-American dress, described as America’s first couturier, and his work in the 1940s and 1950s was sought after by prominent society ladies and high profile figures. 

Not having had any formal training, his work came from his eye for creating beautifully sculptured pieces from unconventional pattern cutting.

The exhibition took place in several locations in the museum and although you had to navigate through several museum halls to get there, it was worth it for each room had its own bonuses.  

The exhibition was set up so that the garments had accompanying videos playing on screens at the side of either individual gowns or clusters of garments.  These videos were what really brought the exhibition to life, as there was a short animation of each piece, taking you through the process of how it was made.  It was a much cleverer and clearer way of showing this as you could see the finished garment deconstructed into flat pattern pieces which once they were all displayed, were then reformed back into the garment in the order in which they would have been sewn.  You could understand the amazing innovation and genius of Charles James in being able to see how these odd-shaped patterns (for the most part) fitted together in extraordinary ways and produced perfectly fitting gowns and coats and suits.  The latter were exhibited together, so each set of videos related to a small collection, but with the gowns, each one was set up for a more in-depth examination.

The gowns were of more complex construction, and each gown was set up with its own camera, which scanned its length and a video was projected of the image building up.  Once this was done, the 3-D image of the entire gown was shown which was then deconstructed so that each stage of creation could be seen.  It was amazing to see the more complicated processes in creating these pieces, and seeing how the addition of weights and boning creating line and shape (all unseen beneath the finished dress).  Photographs of the dresses being worn by the rich and famous taken by Cecil Beaton were also displayed.

One of the most beautifully constructed dresses was the Clover Leaf gown, with a beautiful lace embellishment that covered the skirt and reach up and around the bodice.  A detailed examination of how the shape was conceived and executed could be seen and the work that had gone into the creation of such a splendid gown, considered by James as the culmination of his career, could be marvelled at.

For anyone interested in pattern cutting and dressmaking, the exhibition was like the Mother Ship calling you home.  Accompanied by a weighty coffee table book which I will review tomorrow you could take in the splendour of fashion of a bygone era and immerse yourself in how wonderful clothes can be.

All photographs reproduced with kind permission of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.