Will you please offer your dating opinion?

furwise

furwise

VFG Vice President
VFG Past President
Hi, Can you please provide your opinion of the dating of this dress?

A few details: The dress does not have any labels. The dress feels like cotton. The polka dots are raised. The dress has a metal zipper on the side. The inside has pinked seams and a double row of straight stitching along the hemmed areas. The dress must have had a coordinating bra or slip at one time that went underneath because there are snaps inside at the shoulder seams.

Here is the dress:

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Thank you, Caryn
 
Wow..thank you both..and thank you Marian for telling me what the fabric is called. Caryn
 
I am revisiting this dress because I am not getting late '40's. I think it is either late '30's or early '50's. Is this from the same gentleman as the other two garments?
 
Oh boy..ok. I got 30s, 40s, and 50s. This dress to me looks like a dress that mom might serve lemonade in, no?

Caryn
 
Are you sure it's a metal side zipper? It looks like white nylon from here.

Either way, the zipper isn't right for '30s. I think it's late '40s to early '50s. I like dotted swiss cotton.

Nicole
 
Hi Nicole, The zipper head and teeth are metal. The teeth are surrounded by cotton making the zipper hard to see. Here is a close up photo of the zipper.

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Thank you, Caryn
 
No, thank you Nicole. Always helping when you can ;). I appreciate it. Thank you, Caryn
 
I have a dress with one of those zips, where the teeth are covered in fabric and don't show when the zip is closed - the fabric feeds into the zip closer. Mine is in a dress I always thought was 30s, or maybe early 40s - a long flowy bias-cut peach evening gown, and zip is peach too to match the dress.

I did think this is an earlier type of zipper. Of course that doesn't mean this dress is that early - it could be an earlier zip in a later dress.

Oh and by the way, I don't think the snaps in the shoulders mean it necessarily had a coordinated slip. Lots of dresses have lingerie snaps.

Ruth
 
Golden Age is right: the straps are for keeping your bra in check. They're most common in '50s dresses but found in any frock where the wearer has added them. Couture frocks often have them built in, and I've added them to many vintage dresses as I'm narrow in the shoulders and don't like my straps showing.

Nicole
 
Wow..that is some good stuff..So far in this topic alone I have learned about dotted swiss cotton, metal snaps in the shoulders, when they were used, and why they were used. Still teetering on what the age of this dress is because of all of the opinions.
You all are so good to me.:clapping:

Thank you, Caryn

P.S. Nicole, at this point do you think I am safe to call it a 40s/50s dress?

Oh yeah, while I am asking what exactly is considered a frock? Is it only certain garments or can anything be considered a frock?
 
Caryn -

Would you please take a close-up of the zipper pull? That might help determine the age of the zip. Not that an older zipper couldn't be used later but.....

I did a lot of volunteer work at the U. of Hawaii Historic Costume Collection and found a lot of zippers in late '30's garments. My initial reaction to the dress was late '30's but I'm also getting a '50's feeling from it.

I think Nicole (who lives in Australia) uses frock and dress interchangeably. :)
 
Hi Linn, Now you are asking way too much! Just kidding :lol: You are testing my photography abilty with this photo but here is a close up of the zipper;

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On one side it says KOVER ZIP and on the other side it says KOH I-I NOOF I think.

On a side note volunteering at the U of Hawaii must have been awesome! I here Hawaii is pretty commercialized now but I went there in the 80s, Hawaii that it and it was the best vacation ever!

Thanks, Caryn
 
It's KOH-I-NOOR (which, incidentally, is the name of a very large diamond, that ended up in the British Crown).

It's exactly the same markings as on my zip, which is on a dress that's certainly no later than 40s, and as I said, I think is 30s.

Oh yeah, and I've always thought frock and dress were synonymous, just that frock has a nice, slightly old fashioned, feel about it. We talk about wearing a posh frock here in Britain.

Ruth
 
Looks like an "early" zipper to me. Your photo is great. I think I may have come across the same one in a '30's garment - but I can't put my finger on a photo of it easily. Maybe you could start a new thread with the zipper and Melanie, who is our zipper expert can weigh in. The dress appears to have been home sewn so that makes it harder to date because whoever sewed it could have had the zipper in their sewing kit. Remember that zippers were not used during WWII. I think if it's a 1930's - early '40's zipper that the dress probably dates to that period and not the early '50's.

Hawaii is still lovely - just more devloped than in the 1980's but still beautiful. I still volunteer at the Costume Collection and it's a total treat to handle the garments. I have learned so much being able to do that.
 
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