I thought you might like to see this dress by Louella Ballerino, which dates to about 1949. In my 10 years in this business, this is the first Ballerino garment I've ever found. Her pieces are highly sought after by collectors. Just listed on my website! See more pics and information on my website. And to learn more about Louella Ballerino, check out this article written by VFG member Noir Boudoir.
:wow: So elegant! Thanks for posting this, Jody, and for pointing us to the excellent bio on Ballerino.
lovely garment - almost a Russian influence? the noir boudoir moniker was my previous incarnation (when a trade member, but no longer have the time...) I've found three Louella garments over the years on Ebay, all of the summer/ethnic cotton variety, in which she specialised. So something darker and more autumny is very interesting to see. I sold two dresses to a collector (who's most usually seen investing in modern couture/rtw labels), who I think had branched out to Ballerino from being interested in California sportswear in general. I've kept an embellished broomstick-style skirt which has some gold embroidered banding on it, amongst other things. In my experience, her name isn't much recognized by yr average vendor, so her garments aren't marketed in a way which promotes her name. Seeing you post this is a nice change. I've been in correspondence once or twice with a fashion history researcher in California who specialises in Ballerino (and who acquires her pieces). She was very emphatic that Ballerino should be considered an innovative manufacturer, rather than as a auteur-ish designer. But as a manufacturer, I think she condensed and expressed really well a lot of the most interesting developments of 40s leisure fashion. lovely to see this!
Ah, I see you suggest native American ceramic as a possible influence for the sleeve decoration - good point!
I am always thrilled to find pieces by the California designers. I've had and sold pieces by Carolyn Schnurer and Tina Leser. My next holy grail will be a Joset Walker or a Clare Potter. Thanks for weighing in Lin! Can you hook me up with the researcher in California?
So nice to see this example of her work and the dress featured in the 1947 ad - great colour combination. It made me look at the excellent post 'Sportswear Workshop Part 3' from Lizzie back in 2008 which brought up the American post-war designers which included Louella Ballerino. Ballerino worked with knit fabrics when designing swimwear so this wool jersey dress is interesting from that perspective. http://forums.vintagefashionguild.org/viewthread.php?tid=54548
hi again, I've been searching through my old, heaped gmail account, and for some reason I have only the ebay ID of the costume historian there, which I'll transmit by pm (it's minimally active, I think). I think my other correspondence with her is now on my old semi-defunct computer. I thought this was a relevant, interesting read too: http://blog.fidmmuseum.org/museum/2009/08/louella-ballerino.html
