Known as 'queen of drapery', Madame Grès's iconic gowns appear to suspend time itself, preserving the process of making and allowing the body to articulate past and present simultaneously. Combining philosophical inquiry with close material and technical analysis, this is the first book-length study of Grès's life and work to place detailed object-based research in dialogue with a sustained exploration of her artistry and its relationship to fashion, temporality and the sublime.

Drawing on 31 garments from major museum collections in Paris, New York and London, curator and historian Anabela Becho examines Grès's innovative pleating techniques alongside biographical material, photographs, interviews and contemporary press coverage. Structured around the folds and repetitions of Grès's draped designs, the book unfolds new dimensions of her life, practice and artistic vision across her full career from the 1930s to the 1980s, from her engagement with classicism as a young couturier, to her pursuit of a distinctive visual identity during the Occupation in Paris.
Given the growing presence of fashion in museums, Becho also considers how the metaphysical dimensions of Grès's enduring self-portrait through her oeuvre can be communicated through exhibitions, display and interpretation.

A powerful new counterpoint to transitory conceptions of fashion, Becho explores how Grès strove to realise an aesthetic ideal that could be maintained across space and time, and proposes a new framework for understanding her oeuvre and its significance today.