Fashion Nerds

The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of the Museum of the City of New York, 1964. Object record

Evening dress

1939

Materials

silk

House / label

Valentina

Collection

1939

Archive reference

2009.300.350

Behind the design

Valentina designed this 1939 dress for Katharine Cornell to wear in the Broadway production No Time for Comedy. The Met connects its long, draped silhouette with medieval references and identifies the use of bias cutting. It demonstrates the close relationship between her fashion practice and clothing for performers.

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