Dress #108: Charles James evening dress in black and turquoise Anteater This hand-stitched early Victorian paper

This hand-stitched early Victorian paper gown is based on an American day dress from ca

and is considered by the Met to be the ‘only American to work in the true couture tradition’

This hand-stitched paper dress is based on a ballgown created by Charles James between 1950-1952

The belted dress features a fitted bodice

or using custom dress forms that combined the measurements of his customer with the fanciful contours used to sculpt the dresses into the desired shapes

Dress #108: Charles James evening dress in black and turquoise Anteater This hand-stitched early Victorian paperThis hand stitched paper dress is based on an evening dress created by Charles James in ca. 1955; the original, in black velvet and blue green satin, is held by the Museum at FIT (accession 91. 241. 132). The most striking feature of the dress is a three foot long metal zipper that spirals around the gown. With only a low resolution image to work from, I couldnt identify the path of the zipper, but its there, somewhere! Ive chosen a Nepalese Lokta