Dress c. 1937

This watercolor called 'Dress' was made by Arelia Arbo. The artist, born in 1855, uses these gentle strokes of color to bring what looks like a dress design to life. Look at the way the watercolor paper peeks through! It’s as if the garment is almost breathing, not just sitting flat on the page. The red lines give it shape and, at the same time, make it seem fragile. There's this sleeve floating off to the side, like a ghostly afterthought, all decorated with beads or tassels. And the dress itself is just lines, lines, lines going from top to bottom, like the whole thing could unravel if you pulled on one thread. It makes you wonder about clothing, doesn't it? Who wore it? What did it mean? Was it ever real, or just a lovely dream in red? The work reminds me of Hilma af Klint's interest in unseen dimensions of reality, with a similar kind of searching for form and hidden meaning, that makes you consider fashion as a carrier of deeper messages.