What: The exhibition—Charles James - is open at the Kent State Museum.

When: May 31 through February 17, 2008

Where: Alumni Gallery in Rockwell Hall on the corner of East Main and South Lincoln streets on the Kent Campus.

Background: The body of work created by Charles James from 1926 until his death in 1978 has become a touchstone in the history of fashion. Distinctive, colorful and extreme are terms that describe both the clothes and the creator. The Kent State University Museum is proud to have in its collection several spectacular and highly sought-after garments by James that are the building blocks used to mark the 100th anniversary of the creator's birth.

Eleven garments will be on display in the Museum's Alumni Gallery. These will include early pieces, such as a black satin coat created in 1943-1945 for the Elizabeth Arden Salon on New York's Fifth Avenue, to some quintessential 1950s day, cocktail and evening attire. Among the jewels of the Museum's collection will be the magnificent "Butterfly" and "Concert" evening gowns. These garments will be shown alongside other astonishing pieces, such as Austine Hearst's "Four-Leaf Clover" evening gown, borrowed from The Ohio State University, and others from The Goldstein Museum of Design and Mount Mary College.

The garments presented will help visitors understand James' uncompromising idealism and his ability to make fabric obey his will. Always placing ideals before practical considerations, he padded, lined, interfaced, boned and wired cloth and devised numerous construction techniques to build fanciful gowns that transformed women into visions of gracefulness and elegance. His ability to drape cloth, at times directly on a person, was at the heart of some of his most important work. Yet his legacy in the twenty-first century lies overwhelmingly in his ability to cut the cloth to produce abstract and complex shapes brought to life through experimentation and imagination.

With fluid materials, Charles James created three-dimensional structures that defined his times and helped him find his own path, distinct from those that preceded him. He had the courage of his convictions and sought difficult answers based on body, cloth, and the space between and around them. A perfectionist, he worked tirelessly on improving a design over many years. James succeeded in transforming a woman's body into an icon of femininity.

The Kent State University Museum is open Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.; Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8:45 p.m.; and Sunday from noon to 4:45 p.m. It is closed on Monday and Tuesday.

The museum is located in Rockwell Hall on the corner of East Main and South Lincoln streets on the Kent Campus. Special guided tours are available for groups by reservation. Free on-site motor coach parking is available.

For additional information about the Kent State University Museum, go to http://www.kent.edu/muusem/, or call (330) 672-3450.

LINK TO JAMES WEBSITE

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