Robe soir, corsage en faille, jupe tulle noir garnie feuilles appliqués en faille. 1939

This fashion sketch by Jean Dessès shows a design for an evening gown, rendered with pencil, ink, and fabric swatches. I imagine Dessès conjuring the dress into being, shifting and emerging through his intuition. You can see the delicate pencil marks giving form to tulle and faille. What was he thinking as he rendered those leaves cascading down the skirt? Did he see them dancing? The fabric swatches give a tactile sense of the materials, they add a layer of depth, helping us to imagine how it might feel to wear. The sketch connects to Dessès's broader body of work, as well as the traditions of fashion design and illustration. Like a painter, Dessès embraced ambiguity, and that allows for multiple interpretations.