Cobalt Rhinestone Buckle: The Details of Dress
American women’s wardrobes were far smaller prior to the 1960s, in part because they had far more details than our t-shirts and leggings, and cost far more as a result.
This pretty striped cobalt and white buckle doubtless came on a particular dress and the designer at the ready-to-wear manufacturer chose it only for that dress. Perhaps the dress was same blue, but because the consensus was the bright blues are hard to wear, probably it was a bright point on a darker blue fabric, or even a bright point on a white fabric. The buckle clips together at the center back, as you can see, and then a fabric belt was attached at both sides to the bar.
Which all makes for a lot of thought and effort which explains why women’s dresses ran in the neighborhood of $300 in today’s dollars. And why choosing a ready-to-wear dress was a serious task, and why the sweat equity of dressmaking was so valuable.
