Any information about Herald fashion, likely age and cleaning advice!

[Impey]

Dear All

I’ve come across a lovely strapless evening dress and would love any ideas / insights about the label (Herald Fashion) and likely age/era. It’s been shortened at some point by about 5 inches, so it would have been floor length and has an internal net and hoop arrangement.

As you can see it’s a beautiful dress, but (and it’s quite a big but!) it’s fairly heavily stained (I’ve included a photo of the biggest) so I need to do some very careful cleaning. Any advice about the safest / most effective way to do this would be much appreciated.

I’m uncertain as to the composition - but it’s labelled as dry clean only and looks to me like shot silk. It’s lined in a lovely purple / grey fabric which I’m guessing is polyester or some such thing.

Apologies for the quality of the photos - I’m at my partners but just couldn’t wait to get all your thoughts!

with to able, Impey

 

[GemGem]

I'd lean towards 1950s. I have seen a couple of these on etsy and both were 50s (and floor length) but maybe someone more expert can chime in. It's very common to find them with stains, I couldn't actually see the staining from the pictures provided but agree any cleaning would have to be extremely gentle. There is a great thread on the public forums on how to take care of vintage items and you should find the information you want on cleaning in there . It is a beautiful dress!

 

[Impey]

Thanks so much for this! Realised I’d forgotten to add the stain photo ... see below!

impey

 

[retro ruth]

I also think 50s or maybe early 60s? The lining wouldn't be polyester from that era, but might be another artificial fibre.

You might like to look at this article on cleaning (it's a long read, but worth it), especially section 3
https://vintagefashionguild.org/care-and-cleaning-for-the-vintage-seller/