Design Books to Win

Win a Copy of Charles James: Beyond Fashion

Enter to win a copy of the catalogue for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute exhibition on Anglo-American fashion designer Charles James.

July 29, 2014

Update, August 6, 2014: This giveaway is now closed. The winners of this giveaway are: Judith Adams and Denise Alvera. Watch “Design Books to Win” for our newest giveaway.

Even if you can’t make it to the exhibition currently on view at the Met’s Costume Institute through August 10, you can still experience the glamorous designs and fascinating career of Charles James (1906–78), often considered to be America’s first couturier, through the the acclaimed catalogue of the show.

Starting today, through August 4, Designers & Books is holding a drawing to give away two copies of the sumptuously illustrated catalogue Charles James: Beyond Fashion, courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Charles James: Beyond Fashion by Harold Koda and Jan Glier Reeder;
foreword by Ralph Rucci (The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Yale University Press, 2014), 10 x 13 inches,
hardcover, 264 pages, 273 color and 42 black-and-white illustrations

About Charles James: Beyond Fashion, from The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Renowned in the 1940s and 1950s as a master at sculpting fabric for the female form, Charles James created fashions that defined mid-century glamour. Although James had no formal training as a dressmaker, he created strikingly original and complex designs, including intricate ball gowns worn by members of high society in New York and Europe.

Featuring new photography of the spectacular evening dresses James produced between 1947 and 1955, this publication includes details of these intricate creations alongside vintage photographs and rarely seen archival items, such as patterns, muslins, dress forms, and sketches. An illustrated chronology of James’s life describes his magnetic personality, his unorthodox design processes, his colorful supporters—such as Salvador Dalí, Elsa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, and Cristobal Balenciaga—and profiles of a number of his famous clients, such as Gypsy Rose Lee.

To find out more about Charles James, read our recent interview with the exhibition curator and catalogue co-author, Harold Koda.

The exhibition Charles James: Beyond Fashion is on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institutute through August 10, 2014.

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