Dating a Joseph Ribkoff diamante trim black suit jacket

[Pinkcoke]

Not taking labels into consideration I would have thought this dates from the 80s or 90s, which way to go I'm not sure. The strip diamante trim is not a cheap one - metal and glass I think and a good weight. The plastic buttons in particular look like copies of 50's rhinestone buttons to me, which would suggest 80's revival, but it has no tumble dry symbol on the label which was supposed to have been added to the list of symbols in 1985. It does have a solitary 83 on the label which I'm wondering if that could be 1983, though it seems quite a bit too early to me. What do you think?

 

[Circa Vintage Clothing]

Melanie, it could be early '80s. Shoulders seem too narrow for late '80s and the trims suggest '80s rather than '90s.

The size label has the US size one down from the UK one (not two like it is now) so that also suggests it's not recent. The tag has a number following "Modele" which starts with an 83 too - and '40s revival styles were big that year so it's possible you're right.

 

[Pinkcoke]

Thanks Nicole - Louise's more recent evening dress also had the model number start with the same solitary 2 digit number.

Despite the dry clean only warning I was thinking about hand washing this, not because it especially needs it but mostly because the label looks like it needs a scrub - being careful about not catching the diamante collar - what do you think? It does have some odd pulls on the sleeves so I think it's possibly already been through a washing machine! The diamante trim was sewn into the seam unfortunately so I can't remove it.

 

[Circa Vintage Clothing]

I recommend dry cleaning for all tailored items, as they contain assorted layers of fabric and laundering might shrink one of them, throwing the design out of whack. I can't see any signs it's been machine washed, I hope not: they usually look pretty sad after going a round in the tub.

Please disregard my comment about the size difference, after seeing the similar label in the other thread which also has the sizes one size apart. I forget that Australian sizes and UK sizes aren't the same: US sizes are two down from ours, but I'm not sure about UK ones. Can you confirm? My understanding was that an Australian 10 (bust 36, waist 28, hips 38) is similar to a US 6. Is this a UK 8 or 10?

 

[Pinkcoke]

Er, that would be closest to a UK 10 though I would normally have given the bust as 34 on average. The jacket measures 38" bust which should be good for a modern UK 12 with a 36" bust (the mannequin is a 8/10 with unrealistic proportions). I find on a real human 80's sizes do come up one size smaller by modern standards, however they are also often oversize which can compensate for this.
May or may not have answered your Q? there...lol