1955

Woman's Dinner Suit: Jacket and Skirt

Gold morning glories against vibrant red silk make this dressy suit stand out, although Charles James’s extraordinary diagonal seaming is more noticeable in plain fabric versions of the suit. James produced designs that were completely idiosyncratic. A self-taught perfectionist, he obsessed over the cut and construction of each garment. He took four years to develop this suit, inspired by Asian shapes, and considered it to be his tailoring masterpiece.