HONORING CHARLES JAMES
“A design should be fitted away from the figure in order for a breeze of air to linger between the body and the fabric.”
In light of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Charles James: Beyond Fashion exhibition, opening on May 8, and the Met Ball which took place on Monday, this is our tribute to the legendary couturier, who, though underappreciated in his time, he managed to become one of the most influential fashion designers thanks to his creativity and innovative spirit.
Born in England in 1906, James began his career in fashion designing hats, when he opened a hat store in Chicago by the name of one of his childhood friends, “Charles Boucheron” at the age of 19. In 1928, he left Chicago for Long Island and later opened a hat store in Murray Hill, Queens, New York; that’s when he designed his first dress. From 1930 to 1950, James spent time in London, setting up a shop in Mayfair, and Paris, presenting one of his most successful collections in Paris in 1947. By the 1950s, he was spending most of his time in New York, where he won the prestigious Coty Award and, in 1953, the Neiman Marcus Award, where he surprised everyone when he appeared before the black-tie audience in his jeans, explaining that “the blue jean is the only art form in apparel.” In 1956, Charles James celebrated the birth of his son, Charles Jr., with a kids’ wear collection, highlighted by a cape in robin’s-egg blue; Princess Grace of Monaco ordered eighteen items for the layette of her daughter, Caroline.
James was known for being a social butterfly and always attended the biggest galas and parties of the year. He even created a dress called “The Taxi Dress” designed in a way that you could easily change into it in a cab while you were heading to a party. Bill Cunningham and Cecil Beaton were James’ greatest friends; he managed to build – and later destroy – his relationship with Diana Vreeland and Roy Halston; designers Cristóbal Balenciaga and Christian Dior highly praised him, with the latter once calling him “the greatest talent of my generation” and crediting James with inspiring him with The New Look; he dressed fellow designers Schiaparelli and Chanel. However, when it came to the business end of things, he never really succeeded; on the contrary, he totally failed, fell into $197,000 worth of debt and, eventually, had his showroom seized by the IRS.
In 1964, with his business burdened with debt and estranged from his wife and all-star fashion friends, James landed at the Chelsea hotel. He continued to produce custom clothing for the occasional client but undertook a new role as a teacher. Along with the Art Students League and Pratt Institute, he embarked on a series of projects focused on “fashion engineering” and won a Guggenheim Fellowship to write a textbook on the same subject, which he never came to produce; nor did he finish a memoir he was writing, which he intended to call “Beyond Fashion.” Illustrator Antonio Lopez preserved a record of James’s work in hundreds of drawings and Pratt student Homer Layne became his chief assistant and the steward of his archives, which he gave to the Met last year. Photographer Bill Cunningham documented the late-night “seminars” at which James held forth on “the fine points of couture, the follies of the rich, and ‘the plagiarists of Seventh Avenue.’” In 1974, a British magazine published his autobiographical sketch, “A Portrait of a Genius by a Genius.” On September 22, 1978, an ambulance was called to his hotel. “It may not mean anything to you,” James told the medics, “but I am what is popularly regarded as the greatest couturier in the Western world.” He passed away the following day.
Charles James will always be known for his signature ball gowns which embraced the woman’s figure. Deeply inspired by his background in millinery and architecture, instead of fitting the dresses to the mannequin, he would craft epic forms and structure his gowns around them. Though he worked with ethereal, airy fabrics like silk, velvet and organdy, his dresses were always heavy with his most famous gown – the “Butterfly Gown” – weighed 18 pounds. He is also remembered for his capes and coats, often trimmed with fur and embroidery, his spiral zipped dresses and his white satin quilted jackets. He has been credited with establishing the cupless bra, the puffer coat, the zipper in the back of the gowns, the strapless dress in the 30s, the figure-eight skirt and the Pavlovian waistband that expands after a meal.
Images via Pinterest
For an inside look at the exhibition click here.
