Little Black Dress 2: "the 30's and Madame Gres" - featuring Caterina

"For a dress to survive from one era to the next, it must be marked with an extreme purity." ~ Madame Grès

A couple of months ago, researcing some Greta Garbo fashions from the 30's I "discovered" Madame Gres, she was an astounding cotourier (her design house was known from the 30's through the early 40's as Alix afterwards as Grés) who had a very distinctive design and a incredible skill for pleats. Her best known fashions have an incredible quality and  her dresses looked as they were sculpted!

Among her Hollywood clients she counted Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich and Grace Kelly.

I found this  astounding design of hers from the 30's.

This was actually an evening dress, dated 1934, but I loved it so much I revised it into a little black dress fashion, those sleeves are wonderful, and it seemed perfect for Caterina. You can see that Madame Gres knew exactly was she was talking about when she was speaking of purity of lines:

Backdrop: Subdivided Columns by Michael Hansmeyer - Gwangju Biennale in South Korea 2011

A couple of closeups: 

jewels by IT - Elise Jolie most wanted nexcklace, Strict Elegance Luchia: earrings, bang and ring

finally I managed to capture her incredible beauty

this is soundrack I've chosen for this decade: "Everything's been done before" from the 1935 Jean Harlow movie "Reckless",  it seems appropriate speaking of the LBD!!!

On the next instalment:  the 40's, Dior and the New Look previous instalment The LBT 1: 1926 Coco Chanel See you soon! Billa