Help with dating 'Formfit' dress....1940's????

laurenm

laurenm

Registered Guest
Hi All,
This is the last request for a bit....
I have found a Label Resource listing on the VFG site for Formfit...but it doesn't mention anything about dresses. I found this, which I think is saying the company was founded in the 1950s, but the dress doesn't strike me as that late?
http://www.ancientfaces.com/research/photo/801170
1. I am wondering if this is a separate company or something from a later incarnation of the company before I submit this label.
2. Am wondering if this is a 1940s dress?
3. Would you describe the 'adornments' as applique?
4. How would you 'type' this dress?

Thanks alot,
Lauren
Funny when the label/name is something with two meanings...a Formfit search brings quite a few formfitting dresses up.
 

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Could you try and get another label picture in focus? It really helps to see the type of label from the way the font is woven in and the label material for older items.
I thought the decoration (which qualifies as applique for me: a decoration 'applied' to the garment) looked quite art deco, especially the 'rays'. However I remembered a point from this dating tips guide that "Diamond gussets in the armhole indicate 1950s" It doesn't state if garments from other decades can also have this feature.
The same guide stated that "Short CB neck zippers – mostly 1930s-1940s." and "Center back dress zippers – seen occasionally in the 1940s and early 1950s, but generally later 1950s and 1960s and always from the 1970s on." So it depends on if you call that a neck or center back zip. I'm inclined to go towards a neck zip as it doesn't go to the waist as most centre back zips do.
In conclusion, I think your dress could be between late 30's-50's! How full is the skirt?
 
I don't know if it's the same company, but I'm pretty sure your dress is from the 1950's. The back zipper and the diamond gussets under the arms are '50's features - although sometimes you do find a 1/2 zipper like this in late 1940's dresses. I would call the adornments appliqué.
 
The length from shoulder to hem is 44 inches
The skirt hem is 100 inches all around
From waist to hem: 26 inches
and here is the best i could get for the label...really not alot better, my little tripod has run away.
 

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The style of that appliqué first made me think of earlier too, but that short neck zip (that's definitely what I would call it) and the underarm gussets are quite 50s. Is there also a side zip or is the other one the only opening? Also the skirt hem being 100 inches around makes it too wide in my mind to be pre-50s.

Karin
 
My questions are has the sleeve length been shortened or does it look original to you? Also at the back of the dress, it looks like there might have been some box pleats, right? It has a fairly full skirt to it.
Perhaps it is just the way that it is hanging but the hemline looks a little crooked, any possibility it was fuller in length and shortened?

I get an earlier feel for your dress, I think it is 40s.
 
Underarm gussets were also used occasionally in the '30s, and others are right - I generally associate back neck zippers with the '40s.

I think your dress is '50s, agree with appliques and wonder if it's a rayon crepe? The fabric always helps with dating. I would expect your dress to have a side zipper as well, so I wonder if it's been taken out? If that was the case, there would be signs of it if you look closely. I'd also expect it the skirt to be longer.

Lastly, I don't think your dress was made by Formfit - see how the two words are separate in your label? Form Fit Dresses is the maker - the full name is ""Fashioned by Form Fit Dresses New York" and if you search google using that term will you find more '50s dresses.
 
I'm probably not knowledgeable enough to determine if the sleeves have been shortened, but when I lay the dress out flat with the side seams of the skirt lined up, there is a fairly uneven match of the hemlines. There is an area of about 5.5 inches on the inside side seam that looks like it was sewn differently than the rest of the seams, there is a double seam there for that stretch.
 
also @ nicole....I think it is rayon crepe, but am not exactly sure how I would determine that equivocally. There are what appear to be 'rayon' like patches of material inside that the applique is sewn onto.
 
Sorry if my comment was confusing: it was the skirt that I was referring to when I mentioned that it was short. I've amended my comment now. The sleeves look original.

It does sound like the skirt has been shortened, and not particularly well but that's common.
 
Interesting, very interesting.....I hadn't really thought about that before. I guess the bigger 'cutting edge' design houses would be 'fashion forward' setting the trends, with smaller companies sometimes lagging behind with the local tastes of their clientele dictating how quickly they would adopt new trends. I imagine the differences between, say, Toronto and Montreal.....regional factors might also contribute to the 'overlap' of eras.
 
I agree with Susan - and seeing other examples of this label on ebay, etsy, the styles are more suitable for an older woman so using older design elements and even fabrics like rayon crepe would appeal to them. They're all sober colours too: blacks and navies. I have quite a few of these sorts of dresses in my own wardrobe.
 
Thanks to you all. I have a friend for whom this dress fits like a glove.....understated and dramatic at the same time in our current era.
 
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