Hi. I work in a UK charity shop, and we have just had the pictured Marshall & Snelgrove dress donated, and I could do with some help dating it. As can be seen, the dress is a green lace type material over what I believe is a pink silk liner, although there are no labels detailing the material. The tag is similar to one in the label archive dating from the 1940's, but I wonder if anyone can be more specific on date? Also, what would be the best way to clean the garment? Would normal dry cleaning be suitable? Thank you in advance for any help.
Marshall & Snelgrove was rebranded as Debenhams by 1974 so that’s the latest your lovely dress could be - though I think 1950’s, maybe 1954-56 as clothing was rationed until 1949 and the country was recovering from WWII. Marshall & Snelgrove was an expensive, quality store so this wouldn’t have been a cheap dress. I’m not sure what to say about dry cleaning so I’ll leave that up to someone else.
