Madame Grès: The Art of Draping

The Savannah College of Art and Design is thrilled to debut the exhibition "The Art of Draping" at SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film in Atlanta, honoring the legendary French couturière Madame Grès. Organized in collaboration with the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa, Paris, and curator Olivier Saillard, "The Art of Draping" showcases exquisite garments spanning six decades from the personal archive of the late designer Azzedine Alaïa.

It is the first retrospective of Madame Grès’ work in the U.S. in nearly a decade and a half.

"Madame Grès reigned over fashion with clean lines, neoclassical drapes, and a timeless understanding of the feminine form. Her dresses exude elegance and grace and transport the wearer (and those fortunate enough to view them) through time, from Ancient Greece to fashion’s future. This exclusive SCAD FASH exhibition showcases the grandeur and precision of one of the world’s most gifted designers and highlights once again why SCAD exists at the epicenter of fashion, couture, and timeless beauty." Paula Wallace - SCAD President and Founder

In "The Art of Draping", more than 70 gowns and ensembles by Madame Grès from Alaïa’s unique collections — amassed primarily in secret — are presented to the public for the first time. The garments on view date to the 1930s, when Madame Grès was creating under the name Alix, to the 1980s, when her timeless creations were still the peak of modernity. The significant presence of Madame Grès’ works in Alaïa’s archive attests to the passion he had for the designer, with whom he shared a gift for the sculpting of forms.

"Both silent and secretive, determined to the point of spending her entire life in the solitude of the atelier, Madame Grès aspired to be a sculptor and did undoubtedly become the greatest sculptor of all the fashion designers of her era. Across five decades, from the 1930s to the 1970s, she persisted, with monastic dedication, in building a body of work that transcended the fleeting fashions she viewed with contempt. Claiming to wear out up to three pairs of scissors for each of her collections, she invented her craft through the use and re-use of draping, raising it to the level of an art form.

“I have nothing to say and everything to show. All I do is work, work, work. When I’m not sleeping, I’m cutting. That’s my life.”

This statement, like others recorded by biographers or journalists taken aback by how little Madame Grès revealed of herself, could have also quite naturally been the confession of fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa. The presence of a large number of Madame Grès’ works in Alaïa’s archival collections attests to the passion he had for her, with whom he shared a gift for the sculpting of fabrics and forms. More than 600 haute couture designs, and as many photographs, are held in these collections alongside the masters of high fashion — Cristóbal Balenciaga, Charles James, Madeleine Vionnet, Elsa Schiaparelli, Coco Chanel, and Jean Patou, among others — whose works Alaïa, as an enlightened archivist and historian, collected and which now form the precious core of the Azzedine Alaïa Foundation.

In The Art of Draping, nearly 80 garments by Madame Grès from Alaïa’s unique collections are presented to the public for the first time. The designs on view — which date from the 1930s, when Madame Grès was creating under the name Alix, to the 1970s, when her timeless creations were still the peak of modernity amid ever newer generations of designers who arrived on the scene — include her celebrated draped “Antique” gowns, which have continued to bring her renown and glory in the many decades since.The exhibition begins with a selection of Madame Grès’ white, ivory, and chalk designs that reveal the Hellenic majesty of her draping.

A set of draped black designs, as well as designs with cut volumes, likewise demonstrate the timeless nature of her creations and the persistence of her style, which became a kind of personal writing. “I never create a dress from sketches. I drape the fabric on a model, then I study its nature thoroughly, and that’s when I pick up my scissors.” Able to produce infinite variations through her craft, Madame Grès did not just excel in draping. In the 1950s, she was also unequaled in her skill with taffeta and woolen fabrics. Her short cocktail dresses, oblique and profiled, and her fluid day gowns sparkle in all their lightness. Her adeptness at simple forms and the cutting solutions and methods to achieve them, elevated to the level of aesthetic principles, can also be seen in her evening ensembles with their savvily cut volumes and generous dimensions, which bear witness to the designer’s taste for traditional clothing with flat-pattern cutting.

Particularly gifted in subdued and muted tones, Madame Grès was also an inventive colorist with her own vocabulary. Cleverly staged as if within an intimate theater, selected designs from various decades — in hues of reddish brown, chestnut, cinnamon, hyacinth, taupe, tortoise shell, bronze, verdigris, almond green, redcurrant, sunny yellow, all shades of beige, off-whites, and deep blacks — create a chromatic harmony that serves her art, presented in all its jewel-like grandeur." Olivier Saillard - Curator and director of Azzedine Alaïa Foundation

Born Germaine Émilie Krebs, Madame Grès (French, 1903–1993) was one of the most highly regarded and influential French couturières of the 20th century. A consummate artist focused on craft, Madame Grès had aspirations to become a sculptor. In 1933, on the Rue de Miromesnil in Paris, she partnered with couturiere Julie Barton to open Maison Alix Barton, which later became Maison Alix in 1934, on the Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré. In 1942, she founded Maison Grès and set up showrooms and workshops in the heart of Paris, at 1 Rue de la Paix. Her famous clients included Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Maria Casares, and Grace Kelly. A contemporary of Madeleine Vionnet, Coco Chanel, and Elsa Schiaparelli, Madame Grès was revered for her expert use of draping and innovative construction in garments evoking the sensual style of Ancient Greece. Madame Grès’ minimalistic draping and pleating techniques, and her attention and respect for the female body, have had a lasting effect on haute couture. Her creations have inspired many of fashion’s most illustrious designers including Cristóbal Balenciaga, Ralph Rucci, Issey Miyake, and Isabel Toledo, among others, in addition to Alaïa.

"Azzedine Alaïa collected the garments of Madame Grès with passion, patience, and resolution during all his life. He always kept his treasures hidden. He wanted to preserve them for his foundation and the future generations to learn from her craft. Today for the first time ever, these precious works are united in a unique exhibition — and will leave Azzedine’s home to travel to the SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film in Atlanta. We are extremely thankful to the generosity and the foresight of Paula Wallace, and grateful to her and SCAD FASH for making one of Azzedine’s dreams come true." Carla Sozzani - President of Azzedine Alaïa Foundation

"The Art of Draping" offers a detailed study of Madame Grès’ evening and day gowns, tailored ensembles, and cocktail dresses, cleverly staged as if within an intimate theater, revealing the extraordinary skill of her draping and timeless nature of her creations. The exhibition also features a selection of never-before-seen vintage prints on loan from Fondation Azzedine Alaïa and rare images of Madame Grès taken by the iconic photographer Horst P. Horst, an artist of her era whose career was intertwined with hers, presented courtesy of the Horst Estate.

"The Art of Draping" is the third exhibition at SCAD FASH presented in collaboration with Fondation Azzedine Alaïa, a treasured partner to the university’s museums and resource to students.