Viyella Bed Jacket and Mystery Top - Dating help needed!

Fishstique

Fishstique

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I bought these 2 items together at an estate sale - the Viyella bed jacket looks 50's to me from the label, but wondering if it's earlier.

The sheer top, is a mystery - is it a shirt or some sort of sleepwear item? It has no label and is made of a synthetic sheer fabric - with interesting pleating and embroidery on the back. Quite short. Might look good over summer dress though? But I'm thinking it might be a sleepwear item because I bought it alongside the bed jacket.
 

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Sorry, I was having difficulty embedding the pics in the post with HTML - I just attached them using the VFG attachment attachment!
 
1 - the sheer top is from the '60s and probably made of polyester or perhaps nylon. You've got it on back to front, the buttons go down the back.
2 - agree with '50s for the bed jacket.
 
The sheer top might be nylon. It looks like a 1950's blouse to me - and it buttons in the back. The bed jacket also looks '50's to me - but I'm sure others will weigh in on this. Have you tried doing a search for Bard's Toronto to see when they were in business? I did a quick search for Vyella and found out that while it was developed in the 19C., it was very popular in the mid-20th C. for sleepwear!
 
Hmm, there's a couple other Bard's items listed online, and they're from the 60's. So we know at least they were around then.

And thanks folks for the back-to-front tip! haha. I will redo the photos then. No wonder it didn't sit right on the mannequin.
How on earth would a person have worn that? Over a dress then? I can't quite picture it paired with pants.
 
Hello,

The sheer blouse looks a lot like what was often referred to as a "suit" blouse, meant to be worn with a suit jacket over it, so you see the pretty shirt front part and the suit jacket covers up the sheer part...although it was perfectly proper and quite fashionable to wear these sheer blouses without a jacket over them, provided you ALWAYS wore a pretty or lace-y full slip underneath (or lacey camisole). It was considered perfectly fine for a lady to show her pretty under slip, beneath these sheer nylon or synthetic blouses. She could be sexy and feminine and it was not scandalous, and I love the look. They also came in colors, usually a soft pale pastel, and usually had lots of rows of tiny pintucks, soutache, or lace themselves.

They were in style in the late 40s and into the 1950s. Yours looks later to me, not really so sheer as the early ones, and almost 1960 as someone else has said.

I think I can see this worn with pants, provided the pants had a high waist and you wore a thick belt too, which was a cool style.

B
 
Viyella - a wool-cotton blend - became synonymous with good quality fairly expensive clothing in the UK. Well known for classic men's check shirts and dress prints. To give you an idea, the fabric was sold in Liberty's (London). Wikipedia has pretty good information about Viyella and the company's origins. The bed jacket is a really nice find actually. Looks late 1950's early '60's.
 
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