The Chicago Connection: Timothy Long profiles some of the designers with a connection to Chicago.

Charles James (1906-78) was born in London. His father was an English military officer, while his mother came from a socially prominent Chicago family. After he was expelled from a British school as the result of a sexual escapade, his family packed him off to Chicago to work and to continue his schooling. Not long after, he began his fashion career as a milliner. His shop at 1209 North State Street was called Charles Boucheron, the surname borrowed from a friend. Two years later, he moved to New York City and began designing women’s clothing with the same sculptural sense that characterized his millinery.

“Charles James is not only the greatest American couturier, but the world’s best and only dressmaker who has raised it from an applied art form to a pure art form,” declared the great Spanish couturier, Cristóbal Balenciaga. His famous “butterfly dress,” originally designed for Mrs. William Randolph Hearst Jr. in 1954 is featured above in another version, worn by Mrs. John V. Farwell III. The Chicago History Museum has more than a dozen creations by Charles James, many of which were donated only a few years after they were first worn, possibly because they were so difficult to store.

Tags: butterfly, Charles James, millinery, Timothy Long

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