Hi, Can anyone help with dating this Koupy Couture Model dress please? My first thought was late 50s/early 60s but now I'm thinking - could it be 80s? The only other Koupy clothing & info I have seen relates to items older than this dress and I would very much appreciate any help. The lace has all-over ribbon detailing which gives it a lovely swishy, rustly feel. There is a metal back zip. The bodice is boned. The skirt has two layers of lining (acetate?), one has netting along the bottom. Photos attached - I hope they are clear enough. Many thanks in anticipation! View attachment 134547 View attachment 134548
Looks good for that earlier period to me, especially with that metal zip and the style of that label. REGD rather than ® (both meaning Registered Trademark) is more likely in the 50s/60s than the 80s. It might help to see photo of the whole dress on the dress form, to help pin down a more exact date.
Thanks for your reply. Oops, thought I had posted a full length pic - still getting to grips with adding images! Hope it works this time...
I am not as familiar with British label styling but my initial impression was that it looked newer. I do see a number of items by Koupy though that were also attributed to the 50s/60s and I agree that what appears to be a metal zipper also suggests earlier. However I also did see a number of labels that looked quite different from yours. It looks like the designer was Anthony Charles. Maybe you can try researching him. I can take a look later when I have more time
Thanks for your help. I have tried to find out as much as I can about Koupy in the hope I'd come across a similar dress but most are older or have totally different labels. All the pieces designed by Anthony Charles seem to have his name on the label. Really I just want to try & put a date to the dress for my own satisfaction. Although I did wonder if it could be 80s rather than 50s/60s it just doesn't seem quite right - I wore 80s fashions at the time but don't remember anything in quite this style (not that I wore many cocktail dresses!).
This is a hard one... Years ago I had an 80s prom-type dress by an American label, lace over acetate, with a similar boned bodice but just cap sleeves and different skirt shape. Definitely 80s, but it did have an older-looking metal zipper, and later I found a seller on Etsy offering the same dress as 1950s.
Ooops... here's an old thread about a 1940s Koupy Couture dress and there are lots of links in the further posts, especially the one by Melanie has a lot of info and links, they seem to have been around from the 30s until the 80s: https://forums.vintagefashionguild....ens-utility-label-in-koupy-model-dress.53406/
That's interesting, thank you. I knew Koupy was quite an old name & was still around until at least the early 80s but if the word "model" was only used on their labels until the 60s it would seem that my dress can't have been made after that. Bit of a minefield really!
Koupy was formed in 1937 by Charles Kuperstein, to import American dresses to London. The latest reference I found to Koupy was in a 1974 article, although Koupy may have been operating for sometime after that, but not likely much later than that.
Yes I agree, the use of Model is also an older indicator. Similarly Made In England is not common in the 80s (not unheard of, but not common), by then you'd be more likely to see Made In Great Britain or Made in UK. I'd be really surprised if that label appeared in an 80s dress.
In 1946 a new association of exclusive wholesale garment houses was formed under the title London Model House Group. From a 1946 article "The group is concerned with getting the top end of the wholesale trade on a better organized basis and safeguarding what is called the "wholesale couture" status." In 1946 Koupy Models, Ltd. was noted to be a member of the group. The group seems to have had a goal of helping the English garment manufacturers survive the adverse economic effects of the war. The last reference I found to Koupy and the group was in 1957.
