The cat, poster dress
1968
Medium
screen-printed rayon and nylon, plastic, paper, metal (staples)
Measurements
(a) 86.5 cm (centre back) 53.0 cm (waist, flat) (dress)
(b) 30.0 × 31.0 cm (plastic sleeve)
(c) 29.6 × 29.6 cm (cardboard insert)
(d) 9.0 × 30.6 cm (cardboard header)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, NGV Supporters of Fashion and Textiles, 2018
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
Harry Gordon’s fashionable A-line dresses were printed with blown-up commercial photographs, including an image of actress Audrey Hepburn’s eye, a white rose, a launching rocket and a hand superimposed with a poem by American poet Allen Ginsberg. With a pop sensibility, Gordon’s dresses cost around four US dollars at the time and were intended to be wearable but disposable. Gordon encouraged their repurposing as wall art, or even pillowcases and bedspreads. He thought that the dress with the big-eyed tabby cat would be the most popular of the series.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
England
Accession Number
2018.1051.a-d
Department
International Fashion and Textiles
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Professor AGL Shaw AO Bequest