Dress c. 1936

Roberta Spicer made this drawing of a dress, we don’t know when, or even if she ever made the dress itself. The way Spicer’s gone about filling in the form of the dress is really interesting, it looks like she's trying to capture the subtle variations in tone and texture of the fabric. The pale green feels really quiet and understated, but when you get up close you notice the paper has a slight texture, and you can see all the tiny strokes of the pencil. It's almost like she is gently shading it in. It’s so subtle, and gives the surface an almost shimmering quality. There’s an under-drawing of a similar dress to the right of the main image, drawn with faint pencil lines. This glimpse of the under-drawing shows us the bones of the drawing, the way Spicer constructed her image. Spicer’s ‘Dress’ makes me think of the designs of Charles James, who also combined an interest in structure and elegance. Like James, Spicer seems to have had a deep appreciation of the hidden complexities of dressmaking. It’s a reminder that art is not always about the grand gesture, it can also be about the quiet, meticulous observation of the world around us.