SHARE THE LOVE - CHARLES JAMES - HOYNINGEN-HUENE

A truly great women's fashion designer must have an abiding love for women. Charles James demonstrated his love of the female form through his masterful cutting and innovative design that afforded a woman ease of wear coupled with a captivating glamour rarely duplicated. 

His legacy is that of a designer's designer.  More commonly known couturiers - Balenciaga and Dior, among others, applauded Charles James. He is known as the true 'Master of Couture,' and his legendary creations continue to inspire and inform the work of today's designers.

Charles James passed away at the Chelsea Hotel in 1978. He had retired twenty-years earlier but maintained three rooms at the hotel where he continued to live and create, ultimately becoming a part of the Chelsea's long list of memorable residents.

Charles James

Resort Fashion

Harper's Bazaar January 1941

Photography: Hoyningen-Huene

... eye on love at devodotcom

MID CENTURY COOL

The Flower
photographed in Charles James's design studio by Louis Faurer
Flair 1950

Flair staff photographer Louis Faurer photographs 'a striking range of mood from the "Cool" disciples of Birdland' and Sonny Stitt with sax below, 'to romantic rose fashions' as above.

COOLNESS 

... the word has moved into the special language of the jazz world - a language quicker to obsolesce than any other form of slang. Its use demands complete authority; one dated syllable or inflection unmasks the outsider.

   In the circles of last year's hipsters and beeboppers. coolness is all.  It is spreading through Harlem, it has hit Broadway - in  a vast cavern called Birdland.

The uniform of coolness is no exhibitionist style of dress: it is an expression. Patient, remote, the young practitioners at bandside look like first cousins of the "non-engage" students in Paris existentialist cellars.

Louis Faurer is represented in the photography collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Cool at devodotcom

Coolness

Flair 1959

Photography: Louis Faurer