Lesley Dill, Poem Dress for a Hermaphrodite, 1995. Gelatin silver print. Courtesy of the artist and Nohra Haime Gallery, New York. © 2019 Lesley Dill

This vellum dress was designed for Sur Rodney Sur—a writer, artist, and AIDS activist—who wore it in an art and fashion show at Dieu Donné Papermill, a collaborative contemporary art space in New York.

The poetry of Emily Dickinson is a constant source of inspiration for Lesley Dill. 

“Over the years I’ve made dress forms in various materials—paper, fabric, metal. I don’t think of the dress image as sentimental or pretty. It is a shape.”
— Lesley Dill