Help! What era is this dress from - and could it be a uniform?

Johanna

Johanna

Registered Guest
Hi all! I just bought this dress and really want to know when it dates from. The lady in the shop guessed it might be late 1960s or early 1970s, and she also thought it might be some kind of uniform. Does anybody have any suggestions? It is pale beige in colour with a zip up the back (the buttons on the front are just for show). It has 3 lables inside; one which says 'Professional' and 'polyester/rayon', another which states the dress size, and bust, waist and hip measurements (in cm - it was purchased in Australia), and a third lable which is fraying but appears to say 'Drip dry finish, do not boil or use bleach, a little ironing may be necessary'. Please let me know if photos of the lables and back of the dress would be helpful.
Thanks in advance!
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Is the zipper metal or plastic? It is not necessarily a uniform; it could just be a simple day dress. IMHO most uniforms did not have flared skirts.
Marian
 
Johanna, photos of the labels will help but if it's an Australian dress with sizes in centimetres, it's unlikely to be earlier than '70s and perhaps even '80s as inches were used for a long time after the metric change over in '67. In any case, with the information you've provided I think it's probably late '70s to early '80s uniform as I saw similar styles then.

I can help more with a photo of the size label as the sizes changed over the years and the measurements to size will indicate whether it's '70s or '80s or another era.
 
Thanks for your input everybody! I have included a photo of the back of the dress, plus the 3 lables. I think you might be right about '70s-'80s for the time frame. It does have a plasic zip, so I'm guessing that rules it out as '60s (the colour screams 1970s at me). I will Google some old waitress uniforms and see if anything similar comes up. I think what made the lady from Red Ruby Vintage (local vintage shop) think it was a uniform was the little belt bit round the back. I agree that it could be a day dress, Marian, and that's what I thought it was at first. When you see the dress actually on though , it is quite formal-looking - really quite smart. And I totally forgot about the metric change over! I should be able to look up when clothing lables switched to cm from inches in Aus. Brilliant. Thanks for the info! Any other thoughts from the new pictures?
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That "Professional" on the label certainly seems to indicate some sort of uniform.
 
Thanks for the pics - the size converts to a modern Aus 10, so I'll go with late '70s. You used to be able to buy racks of assorted uniform styles in Coles and other shops, and many women wore them for various jobs like hairdressers, cafe and restaurant staff. One of the restaurants I cooked in, during '81-83 I wore a similar uniform. It was just something smart and practical.
 
CircaVintageClothing said:
Thanks for the pics - the size converts to a modern Aus 10, so I'll go with late '70s. You used to be able to buy racks of assorted uniform styles in Coles and other shops, and many women wore them for various jobs like hairdressers, cafe and restaurant staff. One of the restaurants I cooked in, during '81-83 I wore a similar uniform. It was just something smart and practical.
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Wow, thanks for the info. Much appreciated!
 
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