Help dating 2 dresses bought as 70s?

Thank you everyone for all of your help! It's been really interesting and I'm glad to be able to put a date to these dresses once and for all!
Thanks again for all your time
Kelly x
 
you're welcome, kelly! the second dress was really tough, and i'm glad to finally be able to date it too. it may be late 40s, but either late 40s or early 50s, one or the other :)
 
Can you show the unfinished seams of the printed dress, and the waist seam inside? also it would help to see it's shape unpinned, and with belt as intended, rather than pulled back. Can you also show how the turn ups on the sleeves are constructed.

I have to say I wary to place it as earlier because I have an 80's skirt with those same pockets, and have seen many 80's retro styles with that particular mandarin collar too.
 
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I, too, agree on early '70s for the first one - you simply don't see collars like that at any other time, although this dress has a lot of '40s influence, which was common at the time.

The second dress looks like a '40s child/early teens dress to me - I can't see any bust shaping and the proportions are for an early teen. The print, fabric and construction looks '40s to me. I agree with Mary Jane about the Peter Pan collar, and would give it a good press and see how it is - if that doesn't work, I'd look at the stitching to see if the collar has been changed at all. Lovely print.
 
Pinkcoke said:
Can you show the unfinished seams of the printed dress, and the waist seam inside? also it would help to see it's shape unpinned, and with belt as intended, rather than pulled back. Can you also show how the turn ups on the sleeves are constructed.

I have to say I wary to place it as earlier because I have an 80's skirt with those same pockets, and have seen many 80's retro styles with that particular mandarin collar too.
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Hi Melanie, I have added some pictures, had to use modern belt as I don't have the original strangely the belt loops seem a little too low and make the belt sit low but I think it gives a better idea of how it should look
Thank you
Kelly
 

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Circa Vintage said:
I, too, agree on early '70s for the first one - you simply don't see collars like that at any other time, although this dress has a lot of '40s influence, which was common at the time.

The second dress looks like a '40s child/early teens dress to me - I can't see any bust shaping and the proportions are for an early teen. The print, fabric and construction looks '40s to me. I agree with Mary Jane about the Peter Pan collar, and would give it a good press and see how it is - if that doesn't work, I'd look at the stitching to see if the collar has been changed at all. Lovely print.
Click to expand...

Hi Nicole, yes it was the earlier influence to the 70s one and the fact it had a metal zip in the side that had me confused. I'm pretty sure the second dress is a teens dress, there are waistline darts but no bust darts, the bodice length is quite short. Thank you for your advice, I did press the collar, it has helped and as you can see in the photo above it does seem to work as a peter pan type collar
Kelly
 
kellyb said:
Hi Nicole, yes it was the earlier influence to the 70s one and the fact it had a metal zip in the side that had me confused. I'm pretty sure the second dress is a teens dress, there are waistline darts but no bust darts, the bodice length is quite short. Thank you for your advice, I did press the collar, it has helped and as you can see in the photo above it does seem to work as a peter pan type collar
Kelly
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dresses from this period usually didn't have horizontal(ish) bust darts coming from the side seams. if by waistline darts you mean long darts that extend upwards from the waist, that's what bust darts used to look like.

i associate peter pan collars more with 50s than 40s.
 
Catbooks1940s said:
dresses from this period usually didn't have horizontal(ish) bust darts coming from the side seams. if by waistline darts you mean long darts that extend upwards from the waist, that's what bust darts used to look like.

i associate peter pan collars more with 50s than 40s.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the information on the darts, and I may stick to late 40s/early 50s just to be on the safe side!
 
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