2-833-139 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Dusty rose pink wool shirt dress (a) and matching belt (b) designed by Arthur McGee. The A-line dress has a short standing collar decorated with lines of heavy top stitching in similar colored thread, a slit at the center front, elbow length sleeves, and falls just below the knee. The dress fits over the head, it has no fastenings. The dress is not lined except with self-fabric around the front yoke and front slit. There are no labels. The belt (b) is made from the same wool fabric as the dress. It is decorated at each end with the same lines of heavy top stitching as the collar of the dress, approximately nine (9) inches at each end. It is double-sided. In 1957, Arthur Lee McGee (1933-2019) was the first African American designer hired to run a design studio on Seventh Avenue in the Garment District in New York City.