references for two piece 1920's 'robe de style' pannier dresses wanted

I'm currently making a 17thC style pannier dress that needs to be used for a quick change.
It would typically involve
the performer wearing
a chemise and stays
pocket hoops tied on seperately
a vast skirt (cartridge pleated) hooked on at each side of the waist
a bodice that currently opens centre back though has multiple seams that can be utilised.

I would like to avoid cutting a new seam down the centre back of the skirt for a really long zip to join both bodice and skirt.
I have a vague recollection of some 1920's robe de style / pannier dresses having two part layering of a skirt on a vest like upper and then a bodice on top. Anyone have photos of such a thing or links to where I may see them please? I would like to see if this is possible for a fitted waist or only worked for the waistless shape of the 1920's.

 

My maternal grandparents, March be1927. Her dress is a robe de style. Can't see much of the construction, but maybe it will be helpful somehow? Doesn't look to be waistless/shapeless.

 

Thanks Liza. I'd love to see where the fastenings were on these type of dresses.
The show was this week and I went with attaching the skirt to the bodice as on victorian gowns, inserting a 30" zip down the centre back bodice as there was already a seam there, but not attaching it to the skirt, as the cartridge pleating doesn't allow for this. I cut a small 6" opening in the skirt there and narrow edge seamed it and added a popper between the two pleats that had to join. This allowed the zip to be pulled out of the opening for fastening and tucked back in to hang free as on some couture gowns. Well it worked for the 60 second change

 

If I had to guess, and that's all it is, a guess, I'd imagine the fastening, if there was one, was at the side (poppers/snaps or hooks and eyes) or at the front, concealed, as in the 1910s dresses that go together like an elegant and complex jigsaw puzzle and you can't see the closure unless you know what you're looking for.

 

Melanie, I couldn't find any images of a two-piece robe de style dress, as you were asking for, but I have one of those dresses in my collection and am posting photos here for you, if it is of interest...


Inside the gown...


The hoops...

 

thank you Lynn! amazing it looks like exactly the same fastenings I went for in the end! one piece, centre back (albeit with hooks as zips weren't around then) I even made very similar panniers with ties just like that.
Is the skirt pleated onto the bodice? and is that bust padding I see?!

 

Melanie, the pictures I posted are a few years old. I took them right after I bought the trunk of 1920's clothes at auction, after which I packed them away in archival boxes. After I finish preparations for a little talk I have to do Wednesday morning, I am more than happy to get the box and take any photos you want, but until then, here are two more that might help. I found a closeup photo of the bust pads (that what they certainly seem to be) and an enlarged view of the place where the bodice meets the skirt.

Thanks for your interest.

 

Thank you Lynn, there is no hurry this is just for my future reference and curiosity now.
I wonder if your dress was once perhaps a costume also. The addition of bust pads is a strange one unless the garment was not made for that person originally - the design of this robe de style is not designed to show off a bust, generally the boning in the bodice flattens if anything.

 

It is very possible it was a costume, albeit clearly one from the 1920's, as there were other costume-like pieces of clothing in the box.