Creative Process Journal: Artists and the Disembodied Dress Form

Marie Antoinette Dress by Rita Brown and Isabelle de Borchegrave

As an artist, it is important to understand artistic precedent - where one's work fits compared to what has been done before and what is happening now. The disembodied dress form has been used by quite a number of artists in the past including Mimi Smith, Yonka Shonibare, Leslie Dill, Isabelle de Borchegrave and Rita Brown, Issey Miyake, Cathy Daley, Jana Sterbak, Caroline Broadhead, Mira Schor and Lun'na Menoh.

What is it about the dress without a body that makes it such a powerful artistic statement? Is it because the dress is a readily understood symbol for femininity?