Beautiful 80s Valentino dress- real or home sewn??

[Ellen Croteau]

Hello all,
I recently bought a beautiful jersey velvet dress with white beading at an estate sale. The one tag is a Valentino Boutique tag. However, there is no 'made in italy' tag, no lining, and the seams are finished by overlock stitch. The beading is sewn onto separate pieces of velvet, which have then been stitched onto the dress. I did notice quite a sewing center in the basement of the estate sale... DO you think this is a home-sewn, possibly[with a Valentino pattern?
How common is it for people to stitch in the label of famous designers? The house was very fancy and a Valentino dress did fit in there. In any case-- what do you all think?

 

[Ellen Croteau]

Ooh, I forgot to say, it also came on a Valentino hanger!

 

[Midge]

That's a nice find! We cannot authenticate items here, however, Valentino Boutique is a ready to wear line, so not the same as couture, so I don't see overlock stitching as out of place. Is the fabric stretchy? In that case the, overlocking makes sense (and that may also be why it wasn't lined). As far as I know, the designer sewing patterns, which are usually by Vogue (and they have done Valentino too in the past), never came with a label with the designer's name. What you could get was a Vogue label, that said "Vogue Original de Paris" for example. Also, those didn't come with a size tag . So the label, if it wasn't original to this dress, could only have come from another garment. It's hard to see the stitching in your photo - I can't say if that's original or not. I own a Valentino Boutique item with the same label and same type of size tag, and it also has a care label and the Made in Italy label. Maybe your dress had them and they were removed? Is that a little bit of loose stitching to the right of the label in you photo? Might something else have been attached there?

 

[Ellen Croteau]

Oh, how lovely to hear all that. And yes, there are some stitches to the right of the tag! Well, that's all nice to know! Thank you so much for your answer, Karin!