Info wanted about Herman Marcus dress

Sarah donohue

Registered Guest
My 12 year old daughter found this dress at goodwill and insisted that she had to have it. It is actually light blue, dark blue and white. It’s a bad picture. She got it for$12. We are just curios if anyone can date the dress and how we figure out the size. She loves it. I’m just wondering if it has any value


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Herman Marcus was a women’s apparel manufacturer and sales executive who according to his obit “was pivotal in putting Dallas on the fashion map… In 1957, Marcus founded Herman Marcus Inc., which made women’s dresses. He sold the business in 1979 to Southwest Apparel Inc.”
I have researched this label on an off a handful of times and was planning on writing a label resource entry for it but haven’t quite gotten to it. There are quite a few places online that speculate that this Marcus is the brother of Sidney Marcus from Neiman-Marcus but that isn’t true based on my research.
I have had a few dresses with this label, mostly from the 60s but the label continued at least into the 80s if not 90s if I recall correctly, well past the time Herman sold the business.
 
I've had a few 80s Herman Marcus. Very work appropriate, nice, polyester dresses. One had a terrific novelty print.

Sizing is weird to generalize, because numbering has changed with vanity over the years. If it fits your daughter, compare to pieces in her closet that fit similarly - and then you have a somewhat accurate modern size equivalent. I always generalize a guess based on myself and my dress form, and give exact measurements by tape measure. The way a garment is cut, and the way it is supposed to fit sometimes are not reflected in the tag or in the tape measure - you have to take into account if there's an opening to get it on, and where it is supposed to fit snug.

As for value, we don't do that here. I can assure you this is a mass manufactured garment, and if your daughter loves it - she should wear it! I highly recommend developing a habit for wearing vintage - you will never be dressed the same as anyone else in the room, it is environmentally sound, and it is a wonderful way to express yourself, often very affordably.
 
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