Help with dress - dating and fabric

M

Micro

Registered Guest
Hello All! Can anyone help me with this dress as I am really not sure how to date it. Its very slim and 'wiggle dress' shaped, though button through, and has large cut outs at the back. At first I thought 80's, though the label itself looks older I think. I'm also not sure what the fabric is - it has a slightly silky look and feel but I think it is a synthetic of some kind as some threads from it melted into hard black blobs when I did a burn test on it (my first!!). The label says Hand Wash Drip Dry Warm Iron - which has confused me further as I thought that most of the synthetics were machine washable ... but maybe not! The buttons look metallic but are plastic. Any thoughts appreciated!

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Looks pretty '80s to me! If you tell me the waist measurement I can confirm it :)

Have a look down the side seams and see if you can find a fabric label - it looks like a late '80s polyester we had here in Aus called "liaison". I'm not familiar with your label though.

Nicole
 
I adore that color! Looks late 80s/early 90s to me. Does it have shoulder pads? The fabric is probably a woven polyester blended with something else. Did the burn self extinguish or did you have to put it out, and what did it smell like?

For a dress of this age, I'd question the lack of a fiber-content label. But, being that it's made in Australia and that I have no clue when content labels first were mandated there, it might not be problematic. Or there could have been a fiber label that was snipped out (not a terribly unusual occurence).
 
Nicole - waist measurement measured flat is 15 inches/38 cm. Can't find any other labels except for what's pictured at all.
Anne - yes its a great colour! No shoulder pads, which is why I started to second guess myself about 80's - no lining either. I THINK it self extinguished - though I probably didn't use enough fabric to test it properly - it frizzled up pretty fast! Smell - sort of sweetish.
Thanks thanks for the fast responses!
 
Micro, thanks for the extra info - 30 inch waist is Aus size 12 now, was an Aus size 10 in the late '80s-early '90s and was a size 8 in the '70s-early '80s.

Whilst I agree that the dress style looks early '90s and the fabric as I mentioned was popular here in the late '80s, from the size and the style of the label, I think it may be a bit earlier. The longer length also suggests that, as the skirts were shorter from '85-95. The lack of shoulder pads suggests early '80s (they took a while to take off here) or mid '90s (they took a while to go away).

Also, Australia was very quick to jump on the off-shore manufacturing trend. You don't see a lot of "Made in Australia" labels after the mid '80s.

Considering that the Sean Connery film "Never Say Never Again" came out in '83, I'm wondering if it inspired the label name, and the dress dates from around then.

Anne - content labels were required from the '70s onwards. It's odd that it doesn't have one, so I wonder too, if it's been removed.

Nicole
 
Wow thankyou all for your comments and especially Nicole for that incredibly useful sizing information!! I am copying and pasting somewhere safe!! That is just brilliant!
 
Anne - content labels were required from the '70s onwards.
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Thanks for that info, Nicole! Good info to have, even though I never come across Australian-made garments here.... I think most mandates for content labels were made generally around the same timeframe, weren't they?. But I assume different countries implemented them at slightly different times.
 
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