This description pertains to two items from the Manifold Vintage Spring/Summer 2026 collection, both of which originated with Geoffrey Beene’s Spring/Summer 1983 collection. They are a red knife pleat silk jacquard ensemble, and a pair of navy plissé silk pants.
In the 1980s, a certain kind of lightweight silk jacquard fabric became extremely prominent, not only in blouses but in dresses, pants, scarves, and more. By the early 1980s, jacquard silk had already proliferated. In the SS 1983 Collection, Beene incorporated jacquard silks in order to take the idea of “textured silk” to its extreme. The Cherry Silk Ensemble features a red-and-white silk jacquard folded into itself with knife pleats. But the pleats open only slightly at the bottom of the garment, revealing themselves to be pleats rather than part of the fabric’s intrinsic texture. In this way, the pleating of silk jacquard gives it a new kind of texture and increased thickness. To add to this, the garment includes appliqué flowers of multiple silk layers, with beads at the center. By the time this garment reached us, gravity had pulled each appliqué flower differently through space; the resulting garment insisted not just on texture, but a kind of three-dimensionality of its surfaces.
The Navy Silk Plissé Pants create texture by folding jacquard onto itself, but into a different way. Whereas the ensemble’s pleats are sewn shut, the pants’ plissé texture was likely created with heat or chemicals. Unlike the ensemble’s uniform knife pleats, the crinkled plissé has an irregular texture. Its crinkled plissé texture is made more apparent by its high-contrast print, interspersed (seemingly) metallic fibers, and a voluminous gathered waistband with a thick-corded drawstring.
Both of these pieces, and others in the Beene SS1983 collection, demonstrate several ways to create volume with fabric. They exemplify a bravura typical of Geoffrey Beene, by taking an idea to its extreme without undermining the garment's beauty.
In excellent condition. One flower may be missing.
Return policy: Returns accepted within 7 days of receipt for a credit card refund and within 14 days for store credit. Item must have original tags still attached.
