This silk, lurex and rhodoid dress is attributed to couturier James Galanos (1924-2016) using a design by Andrée Brossin de Méré (1915-1987).
On display here is the preliminary model from a painting by Austrian Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, housed at the Neue Gallery in New York, together with the dress fashioned and patterned with this motif.
Klimt’s 1907 painting, oil on canvas, is accented with gold and silver, featuring a rich and elegant embellishment typical of the Jugendstill region. Andrée Brossin de Méré drew much of her inspiration from the abstract figures on either side of the figure’s torso in the background of this design, resulting in a profusion of round motifs and concentric spirals in ovoid shapes. The designer’s concept is based on a red chromatic range, while the dress presented here is closer to the colors of Klimt’s painting with its bronze and orange tones, enhanced with gold lurex.
Two dresses from James Galanos’s 1969-1970 fall-winter collection, made from the same brocade, are on display at the MET in New York.