The Simultaneous Dress of Sonia Delaunay, Fashion, and the Tangibility of the Tango

Abstract

Sonia Delaunay’s simultaneous dress of 1913 incorporates a heterogenous variety of materials in its patchwork structure, which includes both fur and fabrics of different weights and colours. By focusing on the relationship between art, fashion, and the tango, this article studies the dynamic between the tangibility and intangibility of Delaunay’s dress and proposes an interpretation related to the collage. The dress materialises the collage within the lexicon of fashion, while its texture incorporates fragments of movements, tango poses, and everything one could find drooped over the patronesses and patrons of the ballrooms of the age. This article transposes the concept of the collage from the surface of the dress to the space of the ballroom, and reflects on the new idea of intimacy and physical proximity encouraged by the fashion of the tango.