Double Elevens Utility Label in Koupy Model dress

catwalkcreative

catwalkcreative

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I was so interested to read an earlier post about this particular utility label as I've just found one on this dress. I'm interested to know when you think it dates from. The maker is 'Koupy' and includes the Double Eleven utility label.

I know from Johnathan's book that the Double Eleven label was introduced around the end of WWII.

The rayon dress includes lots of nice detail such as the bound button holes and covered buttons. The skirt is quite long at 31 inches. The machine stitching on the side zip is quite untidy when you look at it really close. Otherwise, the dress is very nicely constructed. I'd love to know your thoughts. :)

There are a few issues although nothing glaringly obvious. There are some very light spots here and there. The bodice buttons remain intact, although three of them have lost their fabric top.

Now if I could just fit into that 26" waist! :rolleyes: . . . . . . .

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PersonalPursuits said:
Mary Jane has a dress with a 1950's Koupy Model label but hers has a different font than yours. I am still searching but I think your dress is fabulous. The zipper area looks like it may have been a repair or a zipper replacement at one time.
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Yes, I had seen Mary Jane's dress when I was looking online. It's lovely! :wub: Thanks so much for sending the links. That's really interesting.

I only found the utility label after hand-washing. It's on the interior waist. I also took advice from cleaning information that I found right here at the VFG. :headbang:It proved very helpful indeed. I tested for colour-fastness first of all, then diluted some oxy-clean in the water and soaked it with another dress. This is the muck came out . . . . I rinsed then dried flat. The marks lightened, with some coming out completely. I don't think it had ever been washed! Yuk!
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To be honest, when I saw the cute little tie at the neck, I thought this might date from the 1930s. That detail always looks so '30s to me. Then I found the utility label. Perhaps the tie is a style element that carried on throughout the 1940s.

The colour-way and pattern are so yummy, I agree.

:hiya:
 
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I edited the thread title Louise, I hope you don't mind.

I don't know when they began but Koupy did specialise in coats (or tailoring) originally - the Museum of London has a red CC41 Koupy regd. coat, dated between 1942-5) that was donated by the proprietor of the Koupy brand - Charles (Chas) Kuperstein.
I've seen some adverts in the past that are no longer online, one from 1944 that showed Koupy was sold at Harvey Nichols - so quite upmarket (I was told they charged £50 for a suit in 1950, for example), and I saw an advert for a new look suit from 1952.
Koupy was was one of the ten ready to wear ('model' houses) companies that formed the Model House Group in 1946. The Koupy brand seems to have survived at least until the 1970s (see Miss Booty Barefoot's advert for a Liberty fabric evening suit here, and a later 70s/80s novelty print dress I adore here.)

I'm going to suggest the labels minus 'model' are garments made prior to Koupy's joining the Model House Group, and those after would be post 1946, seems to make sense to me.
Chas. Kuperstein seems to have been replaced on the labels (and perhaps as designer or owner?) in the 1960s by Anthony Charles, as on another of Mary Jane's suits here.

I have alerted Liz Tregenza (AdvantageInVintage) to this thread, as she researched the Model House Group for her masters degree dissertation so she may be able to add to what I have summarised above.

PersonalPursuits said:
This article from 1948 mentions Koupy Models, LTD so I wonder if your dress is earlier with the reg.
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Maxine, thank you SO much for posting that AU newletter article, which I would never have found. The styles described and photographed are so similar to my own Koupy/Chas. Kuperstein suit that I wonder if it isn't from that very year. The buttons are mop and bakelite?, the skirt has some sort of early invisible zip, the fabric covers the teeth, is stiched down between each tooth and goes under the zipper. The skirt is 30" long inc. waistband btw Louise.
 

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I can offer some help! So first off the term "model" was used pre 1940s. This was a common way to describe a good quality ready-to-wear garment and the term was used interchangeable with "wholesale couture". I didn't get that far on Koupy in terms of research (my research went later and later in the end and only really went as early as '44) but the firm was certianly in existence in the 1930s as I traces Charles Kuperstein through the Post Office directories. The double elevens label in a Koupy garment does not surprise me- Koupy were one of the small (ish) number of R-T-W firms who presented garments as part of Britain Can Make It. I think in the ready-to-wear as opposed to the utility section.


Koupy were a pricey brand and i have found adverts for them both in the UK and the US and Canada.

There were lots of celebratory articles re Anthony Charles joining the brand as a young (RCA if memory serves me correctly) graduate. It was quite common- in order for firms to appeal to a youth market to put the young designers name on the brand label- what the Ambassador magazine referred to as "linkers up"

On a slightly related note- most cc41 labels both the double elevens and the standard label do tend to be in slightly obscure places- i think it might be something to do with a public distaste towards them...

I'm hoping this is going to be for sale!!! Probs too big for me, but I'm always interested in acquiring Model House Group garments!

Sorry if my spelling is all over the place! Typing fast...
 
Pinkcoke said:
Maxine, thank you SO much for posting that AU newletter article, which I would never have found. The styles described and photographed are so similar to my own Koupy/Chas. Kuperstein suit that I wonder if it isn't from that very year. The buttons are mop and bakelite?, the skirt has some sort of early invisible zip, the fabric covers the teeth, is stiched down between each tooth and goes under the zipper. The skirt is 30" long inc. waistband btw Louise.
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The skirt measures 31 inches long, but measured from the middle of the waistband to the hem. The middle of the waistband is on the natural waistline.

Thank you for all the information. :)
 
AdvantageInVintage said:
I'm hoping this is going to be for sale!!! Probs too big for me, but I'm always interested in acquiring Model House Group garments!

Sorry if my spelling is all over the place! Typing fast...
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Yes, I'll be listing it very soon. The waist would be great for 26". I'll post here as soon as it's listed.

Just checking this dress dates pre 1940? Liz confirms the term "model" was used pre 1940s but the utility label confused me somewhat. Will this dress date 1939 or before that even?

:)
 
Sorry, I think I've added to the confusion- what I meant is that the term "model" was used before the 1940s (and continued to be used on some garments until the 1960s). This dress would be late 1940s for sure : )
 
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