M Lowenstein Corp dress

[Steph]

Hi there,
First, thank you so much for this incredibly useful resource- I have used it nearly daily, but this is my first post! I have an unlined midi-length dress, made of a cotton or cotton blend, with no labels. The dress has a concealed metal zipper up the back and two pearl-like fasteners. The only identification is printed on the fabric (see photo), "Wamsutta OTC Div. of M. Lowenstein Corp 10." Searching online, I have found a lot of fabric with this marking, but no clothing. Textilehistory.org mentions that Lowenstein Corp made clothing, but does not indicate during what years. To my inexperienced eyes, it does not look handmade, and the "10" marking on the fabric seems to me to indicate size (?). So, does anyone have thoughts on dating this cute little piece? The metal zipper and pockets made me think 60s, but I am very new to this world and would appreciate any thoughts. Thank you so much!!

 

[Steph]

I still would love help dating this dress, but I did figure out that what I thought was a size "10" on the fabric was actually a ©! The writing is badly blurred. So perhaps the dress is indeed homemade. If anyone has any ideas of possible dates for the dress, I would be so grateful.

 

[Pinkcoke]

While I can see why you would place it as 60's my gut reaction is that this was made up in the 1980s, due to the combined choices of polkadot fabric and pearl buttons. Both decades featured the drop waist but I think this might be too long for the 60's. The pockets are making me unsure though! I haven't seen those pockets on an 80's dress of this style. What may have happened however, is that this was made from a 60's pattern in the 80's and they just modernised it accordingly for current trends.

 

[Steph]

Thank you so much Melanie! Also, it doesn't really have that vintage smell, if you know what I am talking about, so perhaps it is 80s. Do you think the metal zipper is just because it was homemade? That and the pockets were throwing me off.

 

[Midge]

Homemade garments can be so hard to date. My initial gut reaction was 80s too though. It's very pretty!

 

[Steph]

I'll gladly take gut reactions from the pros! 1980s feels right to me too. Sometimes it's easy for me to wish something was older, but it's a pretty dress regardless of age, so I need to remember that. Thank you so much!

 

[Circa Vintage Clothing]

Another vote for '80s. I agree that it's likely to be home made, and the markings on the fabric relate to the fabric only.

The armholes look like they have an interior binding, rather than facing so I wonder if it originally had sleeves, that have since been removed. Here in Australia, this is a common thing to do to '80s dresses as the sleeves are rather large.