I bought this dress on eBay for a 1920s themed party I went to yesterday. I've no experience with authentic 20s clothing, but having spent a lot of time looking at photos, it does seem to me like this is probably a true 20s dress. No luck researching the label yet. I did take a crack at using nytimes archives, but ran into dead ends there too. How likely would it have been, do you think, for the Peggy Ward who became the Countess Munster and ran a successful decorating business in the early 20th century to have also had a clothing line? Photos taken of the dress inside-out before I washed it - I was so anxious about washing something so antique, but it cleaned up beautifully and only needed a few slight repairs to the seams before I could wear it last night. Any thoughts?
I love the dress and it looks great on you. Actually, just to clarify, Flappers came about in the very early 1920s, not late 1920s. I would have loved to have been one back in the day!
Thanks! I'm shocked I actually managed to win the ebay auction on this AND that it didn't cost too much either! I wasn't trying to go for flapper look at all, but more of a general 1920s theme for the event. I spent a lot of time looking at old family photos as well as public domain photos on places like shorpy.com. Based on my own research, which sadly still comes up with nothing for the label, I think my dress probably came from the early to mid 1920s just based on the waist (not really a true drop waist, which was late 20s). I think both the neckline and the sleeves suggest probably daywear instead of party clothing, This office Christmas photo was a huge help, as I could see that while many women had their hair bobbed, quite a few had it up in more like a faux-bob that I attempted: https://www.shorpy.com/node/5120?size=_original#caption I did think about wearing my stockings rolled like I'd seen in some photos of youthful flappers, but since I'm at least a decade older than that, it seemed best to go for a more conservative 20s look Office party appropriate, haha Thanks! It was a fun look to try out, and now I have this gorgeous dress that I'm not quite sure I know what to do with at the moment. But at least I know I'm putting mine away in my closet clean, unlike the previous owner did!
I am a little late with this reply, but I found this 1930 ad for a Peggy Ward dress that resembles your dress. As you can see, the ad text says Peggy Ward identifies it as a dress exclusively from Ward’s. I wonder, then, if Peggy Ward might be a fictional name used by Ward’s stores for this line.
Oh my goodness, this is fabulous, thank you! This makes a lot of sense, and gives me more to go on. Much appreciated! Thank you!
Montgomery Ward ran an ad blitz in mid-September 1930 introducing its Peggy Ward dresses in a number of papers, it seems. Here's one: and then another version. and one more, a little different, still from Sept. 1930: This one is from October 1930 and includes the label I was asking about: November 1930 Dec. 1930 In early 1931 we get a few more. This is from July '31 After that, I don't see any more relevant newspaper results from Google. I guess this means my dress is probably early 30s Fascinating!! So glad to have some concrete evidence now instead of my vague suppositions. I'm learning a lot from this process.