Help Identifying a Black Gunne Sax Dress - 1970's

Empress

Empress

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I need help verifying a date and rarity level of a vintage Charcoal Gunne Sax dress, please. I've looked everywhere online, and can't find a picture exactly like this dress. I need an adult!

I found this little beauty in a 2nd hand store while looking for Halloween costumes. It's an early 70's all black T-length Gunne Sax dress. Needless to say, it became mine. Although the tag looks like someone dyed it, the dress shows no visible signs of a dye job outside the factory. When I shine a light on the tag, I can make out the "Gunne Sax by Jessica" label used in the 70's on dresses --however, I don't know when, and I have no idea what happened to it. I did some research, and discovered that this is an original Gunne Sax. The tag is sewn to the left of the zipper, and the zipper itself is YKK. The stitching is gorgeous and great quality with no overlapping stitches that I could find on the satin ribbon. Aside from one loose thread on the sleeve that I cut, it's in great shape. (It's 40 years old. It's allowed to have a loose thread.) The fabric is a thin cotton with a slight sheen to it. The girl in the vintage shop went nuts once she saw it, telling me how there was only one Dark line like this made in the 70's.

Does anyone know anything about a Dark line? And if it was dyed, whoever did it did a fantastic job.

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Yes I think the 'dark line' your vintage store person referred to, must mean the early 'black label'.

I have to say though it looks dyed to me. What is the fabric content, can you tell? It has the look to me of something that has been dyed black, but the main fabric is polycotton so the dye hasn't fully taken and has come out charcoal, or if it's fully cotton they just didn't use enough dye to get a deep black. Or the dye didn't fully set so has faded to grey with time and washing. It's really easy to end up with charcoal when you were aiming for black, when dyeing. The lace was either black to begin with, or is cotton so has taken the dye fully.

The black label has white writing normally, so even if this label was black to begin with, it's been dyed over. And the second label underneath the main one has also gone black, so that's a good indicator it's been dyed, after purchase. Even if there was a 'dark line', they wouldn't put an unreadable label on it.

You can see various Gunne Sax labels on the VFG label resource, how does what you can see of yours compare? That should tell you if the label was originally black, or has been dyed over.
 
Good point, Ruth.
I'd thought perhaps there'd been a dye job as well, and maybe the shop owner was trying to pass it off as a desirable item, when it may have originally been a light color Gunne.

Or, this dress started out darker at one time, and through laundering, the dye ran.

So, when you shine the light on the label, you see the name Jessica, so that tells me it is not the 1969 version, which is the first one in the VFG label resource entry:
http://vintagefashionguild.org/label-resource/gunne-sax/
 
That's been dyed. The "black label" referred to in the quote is black with white lettering and appears at the top of the Gunne Sax entry in the VFG's label resource. I personally had one of the black Gunnes in the 70s and it was nothing like this.
 
I know a little about the Gunne Sax history. It was started in the early 60s. One of the designers--sorry I don't remember her name--graduated from Laney College in Oakland. The co. was sold in 66 or 67.
I also graduated from Laney but she was before my time 65-68. I don't think I have anything to provide more info, but you can probably write The Alumnae office for College of Alameda for info. The fashion program moved to Alameda in the 70s I think.
 
I agree that this dress has been dyed, and not terribly well. It looks like it's from the mid '70s, and the lace looks to be cotton, which is why it's taken the dye much better than the poly-cotton fabric.
 
It's actually a pretty even dye. The lighting in my room just sucks. *L* It is perfect for what I was looking for, so it has found itself a good home.
Thank you all so much for your insight, advice, and links (Jonathan, great blog. :) I learned a lot.) I appreciate it, and at least I know that I have a vintage item even if it has been muddled by a dye job. You guys rock!
 
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