Dimensions: height 243 mm, width 192 mm
Copyright: Rijks Museum: Open Domain
This small rendering, made with ink on paper, presents an "Arrow of Gold Gown" by an anonymous artist. The title suggests the colour is gold, but here it is simple black ink, so already we are in the realm of ideas about colour, not colour itself. The dress design itself is striking: arrows pointing upward, and then the skirt a set of vertical lines. Look closely and you can see all the tiny marks, the way the hand wavered a little, or the ink ran dry for a moment. These imperfections make it feel very human, very handmade, and show the process of its creation. It reminds me a bit of Hilma af Klint, who also was making drawings with instructions for others to create larger, more "perfect" versions. So maybe this drawing is less about fashion and more about instructions for action, and it leaves us wondering what the real intention behind this "Arrow of Gold" might be.
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rijksmuseum over 1 year ago
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This gown from the house of Poiret features an ‘arrow feather’ motif known as Yabane. This ancient Japanese pattern is still widely used on kimonos today. The plate was part of a series depicting twelve gowns created by different fashion houses and was published in the December 1925 issue of Gazette du Bon Ton. The actual dress by Poiret is preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
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