Dinner dress

In the early 1930s, women's apparel was marked by the use of the body-hugging bias-cut. This gown, made from an innovative woven stretch cloth, the result of a high-twist yarn with a crimped, heat-pressed surface, mimics the body-conscious fit of a bias dress. Cut without sideseams, the gown has a narrow centerback panel that flares into a fishtail hem. Although it achieves its fit through the elastic structure of the cloth rather than the bias-cut, the gown's component pattern pieces conform to the period's impulse to violate the strict recto-verso construction of the 1920s, and the unexpected disposition of seams that are often the consequence of bias construction.