APPLIED ART : COSTUME

Jacket, Romeo Gigli (Designer Outfit)

Gigli, Romeo; No mark (Primary maker)
Gigli, Romeo ([designer / maker])
No mark (label)

1986 Spring
1986 Spring

description : Ripple shadow striped black and green organza jacket, unlined and semi-transparent. Six plain black plastic buttons fasten at centre front. Huge Double fabric pleated shawl collar sits off the shoulders. Very long, very thin sleeves have to be pushed up to reveal hand. Curved c/f lower edge of jacket is also quite fitting, in contrast to upper bodice. All seams french seams, all hems hand stitched. Jacket is without label which would be presumably too conspicuous. size : medium. From exhibition label, early 2000s Jacket and skirt, silk organza and pleated silk, Spring/Summer 1986 Romeo Gigli (1951-) Bought in 1986 as the Ulster Museum International Designer Outfit, Spring/Summer 1986. Since the early 1980s an International Designer outfit and High Street Outfit has been bought every season by the Applied Art department, added to by an Irish Designer Outfit from the early 1990s. The International Designer Outfit represents one of the directional new looks for the coming season. Romeo Gigli's romantic, soft, rich styles were the first serious challenge to the 'power dressing' of the mid to late 1980s. His tailoring is idiosyncratic. In this example the tightly cut arms from the anchor of the jacket, which skims the body and frames the head in an unusual and diaphanous way. This maximizes the effct of the stiff transparency of the unusual fabric. From exhibition label 'Grand Designers' Romeo Gigli came from a wealthy aristocratic Italian family and was influenced by his numerous travels to the East. An intensely private man, he first began his design career in 1972 and set up his own label in 1983. The success of his 1986 collection owed much to his soft 'Pre-Raphaelite' inspired clothes and subtle colour palette. This was a direct contrast to the 'power' dressing of the arly 1980s, characterised by broad-shouldered short-skirted suits.

BELUM.T2778

National Museums NI