VV(18): A Poiret-inspired evening dress ...

[Dave Monroe]

"She owned a dress shop in the rue du
Quatre-septembre.  Wore tonight a Poiret-inspired
evening dress of crepe Georgette the color of a
negro's head, beaded all over, covered with a cerise
tunic which was drawn under her breasts, Empire style.
 A harem veil covered the lower part of her face and
fastened behind to a tiny hat riotous with the plumage
of equatorial birds.  Fan with amber stick, ostrich
feathers, silk tassel ..." (V., Ch. 14, sec. i, p.
399)

J. Kerry Grant (A Companion to ...) helpfully notes
here  ...

"Paul Poiret (1879-1944).  French courturier who
designed the hobble skirt." (p. 175)

And cites one Annemarie Kemeny to the effect that ...

"Th watershed configuration of the feminization of the
Other is V.'s textualized body....  This portrayal of
V. highlights the heavily intertwined processes of
feminization nd the colonization of the body.  The
foregrounding of the color of V.'s dress as 'the color
of a Negro's head' functions as a statement on the
inscription of black skin in imperialistic discourse
as 'pure signifier,' a husk, a covering, if you will,
that constitutes the western notion of the 'feminine
principle' (Kemeny 260-61)."

Kemeny, Annemarie.  "The Female Machine in the
   Postmodern Circuit."  Liminal Postmodernisms:
   The Postmodern, the (Post-)olonial, and the 
   (Post-)Feminist.  Ed. Theo D'haen and Hans
   Bertens.  Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1994.  255-73.

But note also not only such signifiers of colonial
imperialism as "the plumage of equatorial birds," "Fan
with amber stick, ostrich feathers, silk tassel,"
again, "the color of a negro's head," even "Empire
waist," but also, in particular, what will be named
elsewhere in this chapter as Orientalism.  Skipping
for the moment the obvious reference here, see ...

Alloula, Malek.  The Colonial Harem.  Trans.
   Wlad and Myrna Godzich.  Mpls: U of Minn P, 1986.

Grosrichard, Alain.  The Sultan's Court.
   Trans. Liz Heron.  New York: Verso, 1998.

Which brings us to ...

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