From pintucks to wrap dresses: Georgia O’Keeffe’s design integrity

I sewed all day and made a most wonderful green smock--I am very proud of it--I guess it's as much Art as a T.C. {Teacher's College} design is--more Art than a lot of things. I'm crazy about it."

Georgia O'Keeffe (1916, ~age 29)

(Originally published Summer 2019)

One of the most memorable photographs in Wanda Corn's new book "Georgia O'Keeffe Living Modern" (and there are many) is a close-up of tiny pintucks and a delicate leaf-like ornament on a hand-sewn white linen blouse. Just sewing the blouse would be a fine achievement for a highly skilled seamstress, but the rows of tiny stitches forming a chevron pattern on the blouse front are the work of an artist. (Click through the slideshow here to see it.) Of course, it was sewn by an artist, one who would become well-known for her sartorial style. And, while O'Keeffe's personal style (from her black wrap dresses to her New Mexico homes) compete with her artwork for attention, Stanford art history professor Corn brings them together.

I was not prepared for how engaging this book would be, but as soon as I opened it, I was pulled into its thoughtful construction and barely put it down until I had absorbed every word and image. O'Keeffe is often cast as one of "those-artists-who-cares-about-clothes," for good reason -- she did. But she was also herself, someone with integrity and a design sensibility she did not turn off. The decor on the linen blouse is strikingly similar to her later datura paintings, and, as Corn points out, the v-neck prevalent in her wardrobe is another of O'Keeffe's expressions of organic metaphor.

O'Keeffe's practicality is also demonstrated by her wardrobe. She insisted that the simplicity of her wardrobe was a conscious decision to limit choice and have more time to focus on work. When she found a dress she liked, she would deconstruct it (literally) and make a pattern that she or, later, a trusted seamstress would reproduce. A favorite dress (like her classic v-neck wrap) was sewn in countless repetitions and worn for decades.

Corn's insightful details (how many repairs to a shirt, where a dress was purchased, a deep dive into kimonos) could read like celebrity gossip, but here these details are contextualized through the eyes of a keen historian. How could images of an artist's old Levi's and gingham work shirts be significant? Tuck into the many folds of this book and see for yourself.