“Ready Made” Micro Dress

This low-backed, extremely heavy, form-fitting micro dress has an elevated waist. The bustier consists of two triangular bodice pieces with narrow straps. A wide ribbon of small, interconnected hexagonal steel plates marks the elevated waist. A narrower ribbon of steel plates outlines the edges. The dress itself is made of mother-of-pearl buttons joined to one another into a surface composite by virtue of four steel eyelets each. The dress is deeply cut in the back and closes at the waist with hook and eyes. Such a piece can only be the result of complex hand labour; machine production would not have been possible. Paco Rabanne, born in Spain in 1934, studied architecture in Paris and initially designed accessories for Balenciaga, Givenchy and Dior. In 1967 he founded his own haute couture house. He, Cardin, Courrèges and Ungaro belonged to the 1960s avant-garde.