If You Insist :) Water Crepe Dress

jauntyrooster

jauntyrooster

Alumni
There are two of these dresses in the bunch - both have same label. Other has slightly different decor and top style but otherwise, identical.

No snaps or closures at all - just the lacing in back.

It says guranteed washable on that label - I am not buying it - has anyone seen before?

Just a couple more today - thank you all so much for input and encouragement.

Maureen

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This looks like a nightgown to me and it probably is OK to hand wash very gently. Looks to be 20s or 30s. I can't see the seaming very well, so it's hard to tell. That lace up feature is interesting!
 
I found this 1930 ad which includes "water crepe" and "wash crepe" dresses. It’s amusing researching "water crepe" I found quite a few sentences along the lines of .... - “The water crepe up the sides” and there’s also a toilet paper called "water crepe."


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How pretty!

Is this silk or rayon (or as they called it at the time, "artificial silk")?

I've been reading Elizabeth Hawes' "Fashion is Spinach" (published in 1938), and in it she lambasts poor quality fabric in general and "artificial silk" in particular, saying that sometimes it washes and sometimes it just "falls to pieces..."

So I'm with you--despite the label guarantee, I'd be nervous washing it!
 
It does look like a nightgown, but I think I see hip pockets that button closed, so more likely a dress. Very pretty and that lacing at the back of the neck is so unusual! I have to wonder why it was needed in addition to the front placket. Were they designing for big hair?
 
Hmmm - interesting thought Maggie. The other dress with same label/same style doesn't have exact same laces but it does have a back opening that closes with a ribbon.
 
Whatever it is - it's very pretty! This reminds me, I have a 1947 mail-order catalog that mentions slips made from "Waschkunstseide" as they called it in German. Translated that means washable artificial silk. I can't say if that would have been crepe though. There are some dresses in the same catalog where the material is called "artificial silk crepe", but no mention of it being washable, and I could bet that crepe was the kind you couldn't wash...

Karin
 
I agree that it could be a nightgown - very pretty - and I operate on the theory that all lingerie and nightgowns are (hand) washable as our grandmothers would not be dry cleaning them. So far, so good - I've had crepe nightgowns and washed them just fine, perhaps they were "water crepe" too?

Which begs the question: if they had washable crepe, why didn't they use it more often? I wish all my crepe dresses were washable, and I lost a sale the other day when I told a customer the crepe dress she fancied would have to be dry cleaned :duh2:

Nicole
 
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