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Classical Art and Modern Dress

By Harold Koda

The Costume Institute, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2003

The Roman poet Ovid recounted an ancient myth in which Pygmalion, a sculptor

disenchanted by mortal women, creates an image of feminine perfection. When he

becomes enthralled with his own sculpted ideal, Venus—the Greek Aphrodite—

responds to his prayers and brings the statue to life as Galatea.

Through the centuries, art and fashion have achieved their own transformations, in

the process injecting new qualities not present in the original garments. Even in the

most naturalistic representation of Hellenic dress, subjective and proscribed

stylistic qualities are inevitably introduced. In depicting details of the distinctive

modes of ancient Greek attire, subsequent artists and designers have changed, as

much as preserved, the actual qualities of ancient garb. Among the stylizations

that have most influenced fashion designers is wet-drapery, a term used by art

historians to describe cloth that appears to cling to the body in animated folds

while it reveals the contours of the form beneath (

). This sculptural characteristic—evidenced in figures from the

classical and periods—has emerged in fashion as a signifier of

classicizing intent. From the nineteenth century to the present, designers have

utilized a variety of techniques and materials to replicate its effects in cloth

( ; ).

In certain artistic renderings from antiquity, textiles appear fragile, even ephemeral

— qualities that are substantiated in ancient literary texts. Such gossamer robes,

ESSAYSHEILBRUNN TIMELINE OF ART HISTORY ·

Victory of Samothrace, Musée du

Louvre, Paris

Hellenistic

C.I.50.21.12 1985.155

shawls, and veilings became one of the most potent associations for fashion, as

exemplified by the popular use of light mull, a sheer cotton fabric of the Empire

period, and also of tulle and chiffon. The classicizing effect is further underscored if

the fabric is white, since there has been a longstanding assumption that ancient

Grecian styles were achromatic. This misconception, thought to derive from the

faded and abraded surfaces of originally polychromed Greek statuary and

, continues to this day in fashion.

Drapery of the and periods of Greek art sometimes appears

purely as a foil for nudity, clinging and spiraling around the body. Often, this effect

occurs in response to compositional requirements rather than to any natural

phenomenon or dressing practice. Such animated drapery frequently takes on a

more schematic form, with fluted edges regularized into a rhythmic pattern of

handkerchief-pointed “swallowtail” folds, a characteristic that has inspired fashion

designers in the twentieth century ( ).

In Greek art, fabrics are rendered with the texture of both regular folds and

irregular pleating ( ). Such differentiated representations have also found

expression in fashion design. By employing a variety of techniques, designers as

disparate as Mariano Fortuny ( ), Madeleine Vionnet, Madame Grès,

Mary McFadden, and Norma Kamali have achieved effects redolent of the stylized

characteristics of cloth seen in the art of ancient Greece.

Citation

Koda, Harold. “Classical Art and Modern Dress.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New

York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/god2/hd_god2.htm (October 2003)

architecture

classical Hellenistic

17.230.35

14.130.9

1979.344.11a,b

Further Reading

Koda, Harold. Goddess: The Classical Mode. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan

Museum of Art, 2003. See on MetPublications

Additional Essays by Harold Koda

Koda, Harold. “ .” (October 2004)

Koda, Harold. “ .” (October 2003)

Koda, Harold. “ .” (October 2004)

Koda, Harold. “ .” (October 2003)

Koda, Harold. “ .” (October 2003)

Koda, Harold. “ .” (September 2008)

Koda, Harold. “ .” (October 2004)

Koda, Harold. “ .” (October 2003)

Koda, Harold. “ .” (October 2004)

Koda, Harold. “ .” (October 2002)

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