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DOMINIQUE AND CHARLES Charles James entered the life of the de Menil family in the late 1940s. Dominique met him entirely by happenstance when a neighbor at 111 E. 73rd in Manhattan, Princess M. Ruspoli, Duchess de Gramont (who figures largely in Marcel Proust's Remembrances), asked her to deliver a note expressing Ruspoli's hope to never see or speak with James again. In so doing, de Menil met the designer and soon had James making pieces for her. In the ensuing years, John and Dominique de Menil, and their children Marie (later called Christophe), Adelaide, Georges, Francois, and Philippa (later Fariha) opted to live more permanently in Houston. Unhappy with their River Oaks house, they decided to build their own. They tapped architect Philip Johnson for a one-story abode on San Felipe, hidden behind a brick wall and grove of bamboo shoots — one of the first residential projects Johnson designed. Near construction's end, John proposed that they commission James to decorate the interiors, hoping he could mitigate the feeling of transparency that Dominique sensed in Johnson's open floor plan. James accepted and arguably made the most significant contributions to the home's sensibility and scale. He felt that the ceiling needed to be raised upwards by 10 inches — a move that inspired resentment in Johnson, who felt his work was being defaced by a dressmaker, a sentiment that dissipated over time. James' decisions for the space directly mirror how he constructed his garments. He started with color. He arrived everyday from the Warwick hotel, dressed in a khaki jumpsuit and used the garage as his studio. He refined his plans by using a board for each room, on which he would test out color combinations until perfected. Having settled upon a specific palette, he would then mix each color expertly. Just as he gave nuanced color choices greater impact by incorporating them into the most intimate portions of his garments, so did he paint the most personal points within the house in the most remarkable tones. Examples include the hallway just outside the daughters' bedrooms, the interior of both the storage closet off the living room and the bar, and within Dominique's dressing room, where every door hinged to the L-shaped corner wardrobe is painted a different harmonious external color, with its edges and interiors acting as compliments. Further amplifying color choices within the house was James' desire to accentuate its spatial beauty through surface treatments such as butterscotch felt on walls both inside and outside a guest powder room off the entry. Within the hallway outside the girls' rooms, two sets of double doors were installed. The outermost faces were left a muddy gray to match the hallway, while the back side was outfitted with mirror; the secondary door was covered in vermillion felt; and the most interior face of the door was covered in antique French cerise velvet. He designed three pieces of furniture for the house with exacting detail: a pair of sensual sofas (actually conjoining settees), a chaise longue for the living room and a banquette for the playroom cum dining room. Their adherence to curvilinear forms have distinct overtones of his garment making. James insisted that every surface of the sofa slope — an effect he achieved with convex reversed curves created by an internal structure of metal bailing; it took five different artisans, each successively working for six months, to complete the sturdy-wool-covered pairs. (The upholstered banquette also adheres to this rule of organic shape, more or less, but it cannot impart the impact of the bombastic duo of sofas.) The chaise longue, where John de Menil would read the morning newspaper, was positioned against the backyard-facing floor- to-ceiling windows. Its wrought- iron frame, meant to evoke the elegant and fluid movement of a deer's leg, was made from pine slats and upholstered in buttoned saffron and gray raw silk. Dominique continued to have dresses made by James once the house was completed. She also had him design a couture gown for Christophe for her debutante ball in 1952, which she wore for debuts at both New York's Knickerbocker Club and in Houston. In typical James fashion, he insisted the outer layer of dress be shades of silver and royal blue in New York; then, when she wore it in Houston, he outfitted the outermost skirt in off-white and ivory. Christophe remembers feeling "very special and very alone" in the gown and that "it would carry you almost" as one moved about, the skirt echoing the forward and backward motion of a bell. Indeed, inhabiting a James gown placed the wearer in an alternate reality of highly laboured perfection. "You couldn't sit," she said. Adelaide, too, enjoyed James' designs. And the legacy of Charles James dressing de Menil women continues still: Christophe plans to bestow her other James gown — a sleeveless ensemble with a black satin top, bow and an enormous pink skirt — upon her great granddaughter, Secret Snow (daughter of the late artist Dash) when the time is right. "A Thin Wall of Air: Charles James" The Menil Collection, Houston Curator: Susan Sutton Dates: May 31 – September 7, 2014 Information: menil.org Note: The Menil hosts a panel discussion Friday, May 30, with curator Susan Sutton, Lady Harlech, Harold Koda of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute and William Middleton, who is currently writing a book on the de Menils that will be published by Knopf. "Charles James: Beyond Fashion" Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Curators: Jan Glier Reeder with Harold Koda Dates: May 8 – August 10, 2014 Information: metmuseum.org Note: The Met has produced a companion volume, Charles James: Beyond Fashion by Harold Koda and Jan Glier Reeder, with a preface by Ralph Rucci ($50, metmuseum.org). The show also serves as the theme for the May 5 Met Ball, in which Vogue is intimately involved. James paired cinnabar felt, antique cerise velvet, mirror and a literate blue-gray on the doors in a hallway. TRIA GIOVAN One of two wool-covered Lipstick sofas. The Max Ernst portrait of Mrs. de Menil, circa 1934, above the fireplace is part of the exhibition. TRIA GIOVAN Dominique de Menil wearing a James gown, composed of alternating silk millinery ribbons. PHOTOGRAPHER UNKNOWN, COURTESY THE MENIL ARCHIVES James' chaise lounge, created for the de Menils' house TRIA GIOVAN The red velvet bustle-like curtain between Dominique's dressing room and bath, echoed in her gown hanging on the shower curtain rod, where she often steamed garments. WILLIAM ABRAMOWICZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Dominique's dressing room JEAN RIBOUD Charles James-designed sofa, framed by Philip Johnson's architecture, 1956/1957. CLARENCE JOHN LAUGHLIN James crossed paths with and dressed some of the 20th century's most notable personages. (Here, he personally models a creation — as he was known to do.)