Fantasy on modern costume (atalanta) 1912

Léon Bakst conjured this costume design, Fantasy on modern costume (atalanta) with pencil, watercolour and silver paint, sometime around the early 20th century. It's like Bakst wasn’t just designing a dress, but a whole visual language, right? The black of the dress is so solid, but then he has these small dots down the side, like a controlled explosion. What strikes me is the checkerboard pattern at the waist, pulling you in. It’s almost like he's saying, "Yes, this is a fantasy, but it's also structured". You can tell he was playing with the idea of how things fit together, not just on the body, but in the mind. The little red flowers at the bottom of the skirt feel almost like an afterthought, a splash of something unexpected. Makes you wonder, where else could he have taken it? Like Matisse, Bakst's work has a theatrical quality. It's all about the dance of color and form.