Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Madame Grès at Musée Bourdelle

John and I love the Musée Bourdelle in Montparnasse. It is dedicated to the monumental sculpture of Antoine Bourdelle. We had special reason to visit this time because there was an exhibition of the haute couture work of Madame Grès whose design house was active between 1942 and the 1980's.
Born Germaine Emilie Krebs, but known as Madame Grès, she was trained as a sculptor and her fashions are very sculptural so they look great in Bourdelle's showrooms and studio. 
Madame Grès used fabric as her medium.
John took this picture of couture pinning.
We loved this collection of her splendid early evening gowns displayed with fashion photographs of the period. She was the designer of choice of great clothes-horses like Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, the Duchess of Windsor and Jacqueline Kennedy.
The influence of classical sculpture on her work is obvious.
Here's another of John's details.
Beautiful. Now this is haute couture.
We know some women who could really pull off this dress.

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