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Circa: 1950s
Condition: Very Good-Excellent
Size: S
Type: Cotton Print Cotton Entredeux
Manufacturer: Hope and Reed Classics
At the turn of the century, a common construction method for children's clothing, lingerie, and wedding dresses was layering flat lace and fabric . This lace, called entredeux (between two) was usually hand-whipped between two strips of batiste. Many of the styles we associate with the 1980s wedding dresses used this method for forming around a figure.
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It provided a way to make a bias fit , especially on the bodice, by using strips of fabric that was cut across the grain of the fabric. These strips ( with the additional stretch that bias cutting provides) added to stretchy cotton lace, would hug beautifully to the body and then fall with a nice drape.
This lovely spring New Look dress from the mid to late 1950s uses entredeux in a surprising way. The designer has actually had the fabric of the dress built using this technique, so that the entire dress ( and not just areas of it) are layered in strips of fabric and entredeux. It gives a unique and lovely use for a technique of fine sewing generally, at that time, long past.
The actual fabric is not bias cut, as far as I can tell, and is made of cotton, as is the lace. It is a soft ecru color and sports a lively warm green rose pattern repeat. The white lace, surprisingly, shows the fabric strips off to an advantage and brings a unique patterning to the overall piece which allows for white accessories. The dress had no belt--it is shown here with a white linen belt (not included--but could be at your request) and may not have had one originally, as there were no loops present . The original side metal zipper is present and functional. It is shown here with a nylon crinoline (not included).
The tags tell us it was from Hope Reed Classics, and I can tell you that it was designed with a high level of sophistication and constructed well. It is in very good condition even though there are a few mends to the lace here and there. (Mends to lace rarely show if there is a solid structure underneath-- and it would need a slip underneath as the entredeaux is transparent). The mends are in the folds of fabric and wouldn't show at any rate. Because of the age of the fabrics involved, I would recommend dry cleaning to keep the dress fresh. (The dress will come to you clean and ready to wear).
The measurements are:
Bust: 34-36
Waist: 26-27
Hips: Full
This is a sweet piece and one I can see on Audrey Hepburn with a large white hat and white short gloves--can't you? It just looks like summer in the South.
NEW LOOK INFO:
After the scarcity of fabric during WWII, in the late 40s and early 50s, designers were in a hurry to go back to the luxurious quality of garments. Soon after the war ended, a young designer named Christian Dior, who was working with Pierre Balmain for the design house of Lucien Lelong, began designing dresses with longer skirts. In the spring of 1947, he announced the creation of his "New Look". It caught on instantly and swept the design world.
The main characteristics of the New Look were the tight bodice and waist, and a much longer skirt. Padding was removed from the shoulders, and the the top half of the dresses presented a natural line. The first "New Look" skirts were very full and required petticoats to hold them out. They also needed yards and yards of fabric! Variations quickly followed, including the straighter skirted "wiggle dress" that Marilyn Monroe made famous.
These dresses were the first Paris designer dress lines to be copied inexpensively by assembly line manufacturers in New York, and therefore became a universal trend in American fashion for both the rich and the middle class during the 1950s and 60s.
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