Evening dress

The Influence of The New Look The feminine sophistication of postwar fashions originated in the French couture houses and was reflected in the work of many American designers, especially in their eveningwear. Among them, Charles James was arguably the most original, embracing the silhouette of the New Look while developing a clearly personal aesthetic and technical approach. James, a perfectionist, was noted for gowns of sculptural presence in colors more evocative of the exotic combinations seen in hothouse orchids than a pretty English border. Easily the most famous image of James's work is the photograph by Cecil Beaton of a gathering of models in an elegant drawing room. Beaton captured the Edwardian romanticism of the dresses with their wasp-waisted, severely corseted silhouettes. Despite the boned bodices and crinolined skirts, each model, with her graceful pose-bending from the hip rather than stiffened waist, expressing movement in the gestures of her arms or the swanlike craning of her neck-masks the structured constraints of the gowns. Dorian Leigh, shown from the back, stands in the concave posture of the period by tucking her pelvis to flatten her buttocks and arching her shoulders and head slightly forward while Carmen Dell'Orefice adjusts her makeup in a mirror. James compensated for the rigidity of his understructures by introducing voluminous draping and asymmetrical piecing to visually animate his designs.