40s or into 50s On Shantung Silk Suit?

dorotheascloset

dorotheascloset

Registered Guest
Color check while I'm at it....I'd call it chartreuse, do you see it that way or more gold? In person its quite green.

Three piece set, from an estate where the woman made all her own clothing. Suits & suits and suits from the 40s/50s to 70s, many of the same patterns used over and over w/ different textiles. This is the only one with this silhouette. Has metal side zip on skirt, metal snaps on blouse.....

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Self buttons on jacket

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Jacket has hard ottoman and cotton peaked & sculpted shoulder "pads", looking at her other jackets I'm betting this one was waiting for a lining but never got finished as all the others are lined.

I'm waffling on the date, as the pads don't mean as much in a jacket and many suit jackets throughout the years had padding to give them shape. 40s or 50s? Any thoughts?? Thanks!

Ang
 
Oh, yeah yeah! I loved that suit.

In real life the suit really is almost I don't know, pea green? Iridescent golden green to be sure (asking customers in the shop in case my eyes are screwy!)

Ang
 
I think this is an early to mid 50's suit. Although, that peplum waist was a feature in the late 1940's thanks to Dior, it became more exaggerated in the next decade usually without the padding. In general suit collars were also classically shaped in the late Forties and again became wider in the next decade echoing the pyramid silhouette. The neckline on the blouse is quite an early Fifties style. The fabric looks like Shantung silk and again the availability of the 'new' fabrics after the austerity of the war make this suit look early 50's to me.

Here are a few suits to look at;

http://tinyurl.com/8rbku

http://tinyurl.com/lu7rm3

- and collars and necklines;

http://tinyurl.com/muc3zp
 
The silhouette looks late '40s to me but you have to be careful with home dressmakers because they're apt to make styles out of era. I tend to judge mainly on fabric, and that looks like it's a (gold) shantung - which was popular in the late '50s-mid '60s.

I often find home made to be tricky. I have two dresses in the shop that could be anywhere between the '40s and the '70s and I can't be sure of either as sometimes women used fabrics they'd kept for decades too.

Nicole
 
True, no way to know with a home made piece. In this case, I feel I can safely rule out being any later than early 50s as I spent hours in this woman's home and have her whole wardrobe....much of it from the 60s & 70s with completely different silhouettes and textiles (and size) than this suit. She went into jackets with less of a waistline, skirts had bigger waistlines...textiles had more stretch (polys, jersey knits). This and a 50s dress with mink trim, and a 50s dress with a wee bolero are the only pieces found in the basement and only pieces this small.

Not very often you have a whole wardrobe to help put the clues together from!

Ang
 
Cusperish? I'll probably put on the 40s page of the site, but it could be early 50s. Silhouette speaks more to a 40s shopper, don't you think?

Ang
 
What a gorgeous piece... made me grab my measuring tape, but no chance, as usual... waist alright, but I can't get anywhere near that bust measurement. Anyway, I would have put it right at the beginning of the 50s, timewise, but it really is hard to decide!

Karin
 
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