A new round of "Guess the Designer"

Teresa, I'm surprised nobody else has guess Fogarty, due to the dress silhouette. Kim, I'd put this designer as a "2nd-tier" name, higher up the food chain than a Cay Artley, but lower than Carnegie or Norman Norell.

I'd put him (yes, it's a him) in the Fred Perlberg/Ben Reig (a great guess!) "layer" of designers. Although Perlbergs fetch more $$, I think this fellow is a match for quality and style. He's like a Nathan Strong, who made wonderful stuff, but doesn't get the name recognition like some of the others.

Jody has a dress by him on her site and Linda (our prez) had an outfit on hers.

OK, another round of guesses, then I'll tell ya if ya yell "uncle"!
 
Oh, off to look at my site. LOL - how silly is that?

I know who it is now. Nice dress, and unlike any I've seen by him up til now!
 
Jody, you probably won't believe it's the same guy--the style diff between his early and later work....

I swear, his stuff is top shelf, and a lot of people "know" him, but his things are rare enough that he just doesn't have the immediate recognition when people see his work.
 
Jody, cross posted with you just now! I have had a few examples of his late 40s & early to mid 50s work, and it is simply fantastic.

The very best 1950s dress I ever held in my hands, bar none, was by him--only I sent it back cuz it was damaged (undisclosed, of course) beyond repair. It was a sarong-style short wiggle cocktail dress with an overskirt that you could put on for a formal evening affair. Outta this world--never have seen anything like it before or since. I shoulda kept it just to have, since I seem to be collecting his work a lot.... Can't bear to part with it!
 
I'm really shy about venturing a guess here, but... Jonathan Logan?

Although I don't think "Jonathan Logan" was a person, but the name of a company, and I don't know if you'd call it designer. But, I think the early Jonathan Logans were nice quality.
 
OK, the mystery designer is Ben Barrack.

I know some of you are going, "Huh, who's that?" Or, "He did that dress?" Actually the dress does have a lot of his signature styling, but you wouldn't think so if you're familiar only with his 60's work. He's without a doubt, my personal favorite--the fabrics he used and the meticulous construction are second to none. And, his early styling was beautiful. Because his was such a small house and he apparently was not as prolific as many of the designers guessed, he's not extremely well known. But most people who are familiar with his work really like it. He designed for his own house and under his own label for B. Altman, I think, or it might have been Bonwit Teller. I forget.

I think there are a lot of designers like him who should get more recognition. If you google for his dresses, you'll find some lovely examples on some web sites!

And, laughing magpie, Jonathan Logan was a good guess; you're right--they're early stuff was very stylish, and I've seen a lot of full-skirted dresses from them. I love their 50's stuff!
 
Stunning dress. I hope you bought it for yourself and enjoy wearing it.
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Thanks, Linn! My "quick pics" are lousy, but it is lovely in person, and the silk is to die for. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it when I bought it--it's a desirable larger size (and is close to being my size), and I could tell it was silk by looking at the pics, although the seller said it could be polyester.... I just couldn't pass it up, and figured I'd resell it if it didn't fit. But now that I'm losing weight, I think I'll try to fit into it.

I think this dress and this designer are perfect examples of my belief that a "famous name" doesn't necessarily make a dress any the better. Anything I've ever owned by Ben Barrack has been exquisitely made, even if the styling hasn't always been the trendiest. Although often his styling IS fantastic. I've seen some (and owned two others) that would challenge the styles of any of the big-name designers that were guessed here. I have a Ceil Chapman in my inventory waiting for me to make some repairs on it, and it's no better made and of no better fabric than this Barrack....
 
HI MJ, wish you could have been in on the guessing! I thought it was pretty cool some of the designers that were guessed.....

I almost fainted when I saw the Barrack label on it just a couple days ago. I guess I must like his work--to have bought something not knowing it was his--just because I loved it!
 
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