I'm posting this from my holiday in Vienna... my friend and I have already been very successful shopping at our usual haunts, mostly the Humana charity shops. It's funny, every time I find something good at a different one! This time it was at one we'd only discovered last time, but which now had countless racks full of bright 70s poly dresses and sparkly, glitzy 80s evening wear - and some colorful, lacy NOS Italian lingerie. Between all that I managed to find some relatively unspectacular looking black vintage things that proved to be more spectacular from a vintage collector's point of view . First here is a pretty black St. Michael half-slip (or would you call this a petticoat?) with a dropped waist. The top is nylon tricot with an elastic waistband, the bottom half consists of two layers - one is a black kind of taffeta with a ruffle at the bottom to give it more volume and the other is a black chantilly lace with just a very narrow double ruffle border at the bottom. My dating thoughts on this were late 50s to early 60s? I'll submit the label to the resource once I get home and can take better pics. Karin
By the label I'd agree with 50s or early 60s. At some point during the 60s St Michael logo was usually boxed, and ® was used rather than REGD. This 'handwritten' logo was introduced in 1951.
I'll let other weigh in on the style of petticoat, but the St Michael label is mostly likely 1950s - early 60s latest. They did include fibre content in the late 50s, but I don't know if they did that across the board.
I agree on your dating...it's reminded me of Rita in Westside Story in 1961 who would have needed something like that under her frock.
That looks like the label on some very early 60s (as in 60s-62) stuff I have owned (not currently sadly) so yup I'd agree with everyone else here. I do like a bit of St Michael!
Thanks everybody for your opinions! I'll take better pics of the label and post it to the label resource now that I'm back home. I made further incredible vintage finds after posting that, which you'll see here soon too. It was just amazing... Karin