A Grand Look Inside the Costume Institute's Charles James Exhibit

James's innate sense of grandeur was in full effect when he designed this voluminous dress. "An aesthetic and technical masterwork, it weighs 10 pounds, yet the skirt is comfortably balanced on the hips and calibrated to move with a gentle sway as the wearer walks," the museum notes. James made six clover leaf gowns in this black-and-white abstract design.

Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art