Help with this 80's? Bill Blass silk dress

Robin of Frocksley

Robin of Frocksley

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I love this dress, and would like to put a year to it, but I didn't see a label like this in the resource. Any thoughts?
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themerchantsofvintage said:
Looks more recent than 90s to me. China took back Hong Kong in 97 and shortly thereafter
most goods were/are marked made in China even if they were/are made in Hong Kong.

A few designers did have their items made in China earlier than the 90s, but very few.
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Thank you for this. I'll be gifting the dress to the model, then:)
 
Nicole I don't know about elsewhere but there has been a resurgeance of shoulder pads in modern garments here in the last few years.
 
Ah, Melanie, so you're thinking that recently? I was thinking more of an '80s style shoulder pad than the modern ones but it's hard to see from the pic (hair is covering shoulder line).

By the way, the shoulder pad revival was very short lived in Aus: I had hopes but it seems to have gone away again. I think it's too soon.
 
Yes I'm thinking the last 5 years. We bought my mum some cardigans that have funny little shoulder pads in maybe 3 years ago from M&S and I have a Topshop dress that has lace sleeves and shoulder pads you can actually see through the lace from 1 or 2 years ago. In a lot of cases they are designed to be seen, or the outline to be seen at least. I find it a bit bizarre actually, it's not quite for the same purpose as previously in that they would bring up the shoulder line and blend with the wearer's shape - this shoulder pad trend seems to be to create an unnatural emphasis that forms part of the 'look'.
 
Yes, I think you're right - the recent trend owes more to late '30s style sleeve headers than those enormous squishy shoulder pads of the '80s. They extend the shoulder line and curve it upwards.

Ah, fashion. Always with the new (that's really old).
 
I bet spring 1992 - black and white polka-dots were HUGE that season. I was at an opening in June 1992 where three of us at the museum all wore black with white polka-dot outfits (I had a shirt and two women wore dresses. As for 'made in China' - The 1980s is when China changed its economic policies to begin manufacturing for export and allowing foreign investment to build factories. By the late 1980s you begin seeing clothes and shoes with 'made in China' labels - often better quality items. It's really only after 97 that China starts competing with the West by making disposable fast fashion crap.
 
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Pinkcoke said:
Ack, it's been cut. Was hoping to see which care symbols were present.
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I'm sorry for the terrible photo quality. It hasn't been cut, there are no care symbols present. When I looked again at it (to check if it had been cut) I noticed there is a number (28) faintly hand-written on the top right corner, next to the word "professional". You can (sort of) see it in the terrible photo I posted above. I don't know if that helps..
 
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