Steel Wool Peignoir, Mimi Smith

In her iconic “Steel Wool Peignoir,” Mimi Smith uses a woman’s vintage lace dressing gown as a subject for feminist critique. By combining the soft materials of lace and nylon with harsh steel wool, she presents a thoroughly uninviting garment to wear, much less to use for seduction. These mismatched materials not only represent an uncomfortable material relationship, but also the repressive social dynamics of female labor and domesticity. For Smith the sculpture signified the realities of marriage in contrast to its illusions, making this work a significant contribution to the feminist art movement of the late 1960s and 1970s.

“I began making sculpture in the form of clothing in 1965. I saw these clothing pieces not as garments to be worn, but as sculpture, installations, and visual objects. I believed that women knew how to look at clothes and that if I made sculpture in the form of clothing I could say something about events and concerns in my life as a young woman and communicate the shared experience of being female in society.” – Mimi Smith
In her iconic Steel Wool Peignoir, Smith uses the form of a woman’s lace dressing gown as a subject for feminist critique. By combining the soft materials of lace and nylon with the harsh roughness of steel wool, Smith presents a thoroughly uninviting garment to wear, much less to use for seduction. These mismatched materials not only represent an uncomfortable material relationship, but also the repressive social dynamics of female labor and domesticity. The rough steel wool, conventionally used for kitchen cleaning and maintenance of the home, combined with the peignoir’s delicate lace suggests the luxuries that women’s labor makes possible. Smith’s work is at once a humorous and deeply critical look at how women’s roles—and fashions—are shaped in a male-dominated culture.

The complexity of this major work of contemporary art begins with the materials from which it was made. Sheer pink nylon and eggshell lace are edged with thick bands of steel wool. The work is at the same time soft and utilitarian, feminine and tough. It is political. It is tongue-in-cheek. Its boudoir elegance is humorously contradicted by the association of steel wool not with the fantasy wife, but with the drudgery of kitchen work. Smith has transformed the peignoir into a protective suit, a woman’s coat of mail, for the bedroom. To Smith herself, the piece signified that realities of marriage in contrast to its illusions.

Steel Wool Peignoir is one of the first works of art to use clothing as sculpture. Smtih was followed in this medium by Minimalist artist Robert Morris, Fluxus artist Robert Watts, and other contemporary artists. The piece is a significant monument of the Feminist Art movement of the late 1960s and the 1970s, a highly influential American art movement of the past thirty years. Steel Wool Peignoir is illustrated in many textbooks on contemporary art.

The complexity of this major work of contemporary art begins with the materials from which it was made. Sheer pink nylon and eggshell lace are edged with thick bands of steel wool. The work is at the same time soft and utilitarian, feminine and tough. It is political. It is tongue-in-cheek. Its boudoir elegance is humorously contradicted by the association of steel wool not with the fantasy wife, but with the drudgery of kitchen work. Smith has transformed the peignoir into a protective suit, a woman’s coat of mail, for the bedroom. To Smith herself, the piece signified that realities of marriage in contrast to its illusions.

Steel Wool Peignoir is one of the first works of art to use clothing as sculpture. Smtih was followed in this medium by Minimalist artist Robert Morris, Fluxus artist Robert Watts, and other contemporary artists. The piece is a significant monument of the Feminist Art movement of the late 1960s and the 1970s, a highly influential American art movement of the past thirty years. Steel Wool Peignoir is illustrated in many textbooks on contemporary art.