#makingbows

Peachy Keen: Evening Ensemble by Christian Dior, 1950s

This lovely ensemble is part of an upcoming auction on September 20th, 2023 at Augusta Auctions which specializes in vintage fashion and textiles. The color alone makes me sigh as I am soooo tired of black for evening wear and I am always charmed by the way silks catch the light. This color silk satin will make the woman wearing the cocktail dress and short jacket simply glow.

This is a clever way to pair a strapless dress with a jacket that keeps the neckline bare, but still allows a bit of coverage or of warmth when you want it. It has the clearly marked waistline that was so popular in the 1950s, coupled with the pleated skirt front and back that allowed a woman to worry a bit less about the size or her hips. And the pleats at the front of the bodice, paired with darts, help balance out the hour-glass silhouette then preferred.

The dress has a separate belt made of the same material which closes with a hook and eye. I have come to think that making matching belts for dresses, whether evening or day dresses, is the easiest way to finish them off. It avoids the sometimes fruitless fishing around your belt collection for something that harmonizes or matches. The large bow on the belt was created beforehand--in fact, almost all such bows attached to dresses were created beforehand from what I can tell--which saves the wearer trouble and the fabric wear and tear. This one probably has interfacing within it to keep that nice, large spread. These are practices well worth adopting when you want a decorative bow.

Augusta Auctions tells us that the dress is "lined in silk organza, boned bodice & interior construction typical of Dior couture." Partly this was to create the shape of the dress and partly for the convenience of the wearer. When an evening dress was custom made, the mark of haute couture, a woman did not usually have to search around for the right strapless bra to wear underneath it; the dress itself contained what amounted to a bra. Interestingly, the label tells us this dress was not made in France but in England and then it was sold by a Canadian retailer which tells you how easily Paris fashions crossed the Atlantic at a time when that city was still the center of all western fashion.