In Search of Style - 50s Evening and Afternoon Dress

A dress in an Bergdorf Goodman ad from New York caught the eye of a seamstress in 1956 but its hefty price tag of $25 (!) clearly motivated the seamstress to look for a good match in the patterns of the day. It is easy to see why this dress attracted her attention, appealing to "country and casual" city style in the rather formal colors of black, navy, mint, and blue.

She found it in Advance 8079, which matches nicely the scoop neckline, short French sleeves, fitted bodice, and full skirt of the dress in the ad. There are some differences - the Advance version has a full circle skirt and back zipper closing, while the advertisement clearly shows a full skirt with soft cluster pleats, and shirtwaist front button closing. But the Advance pattern shows lots of variations that surely inspired the seamstress back in 1956. :) We will never know if she could have come closer, or if she simply found the perfect pattern for her.

In Search of Style - Designer Couture Evening Gown

This search for style begins with an advertisement from the early 70s for a fabulous evening gown from Saks Fifth Avenue. The advert describes their collection and this gown from their designer salon in romantic terms: "A romantic mood pervades. Soft and subtle draping. Slinks or ruffles. Movement from fringes as you float by. Soft clear colors, jerseys, chiffons and more. Here, all ruffled up. A sleeveless dress, close-to-you on top, full and flounced below. Nylon zigaline in white with navy. $425."

A dream of a dress, don't you agree? Our seamstress found a remarkable match for this beauty with a Vogue Americana pattern designed by Oscar de la Renta, pattern 2879. The stunning plunging neckline trimmed with ruffles and full skirt seals the deal!

In Search of Style - An A-line Angle

Occasionally I come across a pattern where the seamstress has tucked in clippings of similar styles. This tells a story we can relate to, where we see a dress in a magazine or newspaper, and search through patterns to look for something as close as possible.

In this example, the seamstress had clipped the following dresses:

From these we can see that she wants an A-line dress with a shaped bodice, maybe some top-stitching, a V-neckline (with a collar? without a collar?), maybe princess seams. The pattern she found that was closest to the looks of these two dresses is Vintage 1972 Butterick 6846 (Misses' Dress, Tunic and Pants):

Pretty close, don't you think?