Before They Were the Eameses
Paper Doll Set: A Woman with Four Dresses
Ray Kaiser
c. 1928
While attending Sacramento High School, Ray created this paper doll and her fashionable wardrobe. Ray would later go on to design and draw her own travel wardrobe.
- Medium:Ink, watercolor, and graphite on paper
- Dimensions:Framed: 15 3/4 x 12 1/8 in. (40 x 30.8 cm)
- Item:A.2019.2.008
Curatorial Notes
Ray once said she started drawing at the age of three and never stopped. One of her main interests from her teenage years and well into adulthood was fashion illustration. Here, although created when Ray was still a high school student, it is clear that she had been paying great attention to women’s fashion and its details. She was also a fairly proficient artist and a member of the Art Club in high school.
Clockwise from the lower left: a sheer bodice with a knife-pleated skirt and dropped waist; a floor-length evening gown with diagonally placed strips of silk forming the bodice above a cascading series of flounces; a mustard and rust day dress with a black coat belted at the hip (the height of fashion at the time), completed with a white fur stole that carries the eye to the pink day dress in the lower-right worn with a darker pink coat, hip-encircling belt, and matching cloche hat.
— Dale Carolyn Gluckman
Clockwise from the lower left: a sheer bodice with a knife-pleated skirt and dropped waist; a floor-length evening gown with diagonally placed strips of silk forming the bodice above a cascading series of flounces; a mustard and rust day dress with a black coat belted at the hip (the height of fashion at the time), completed with a white fur stole that carries the eye to the pink day dress in the lower-right worn with a darker pink coat, hip-encircling belt, and matching cloche hat.
— Dale Carolyn Gluckman
