Beautiful Vintage Pink Beaded Summer Weight Dress!

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1920's To The 1940's Period, U.S., Woman's, Pink Color, Summer Dress

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Our Price: $1,600.00

Quantity in Stock:1
Availability:: Usually Ships in 1 to 2 Business Days
Product Code: W153

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Description

This stunning long dress is very difficult to date properly. It could date as early as the late 1920's depression era as a "Flapper's Dress" or as late as the late 1940's when these beaded styles had faded from popularity. While the date is open to speculation, this dress does not glow under black light as most 1950's, partially synthetic made material dresses would. While possibly of commerical origin, one textile "expert" who saw this dress estimated that it was definitely of the1930's period when such beaded dresses were in vogue. Also, this dress looks completely hand made, and not a store bought item. We can not tell either way, but it is definitely very old. The many thousands of hand sewn on beads and trimmings would have been almost impossible to produce using machinery. The thousands of beads are all glass, not plastic, which dates this dress as very old indeed. There are no tags indicating anything other than it's a hand made item.

The overall condition appears as in VERY GOOD CONDITION. But as expected from such a delicate item, there are some snags, and a stain or 2. We can not guarantee that all of the many beads are all there. There is 1 very small hem line hole that can be easily repaired by a seamstress. All of the defects are minor and not very noticable as the stunning bead work draws all of the attention from the onlooker. Since this dress is of a extremely delicate and frail, light, summer weight of possibly crepe type material, wearing it would be detrimental. This dress is unlined so a neutral color long slip would be necessary for modesty reasons.

The thousands of glass beads also make this dress very heavy, adding to its delicate condition. While there are no gores or pleats, the skirt portion is highly gathered at the top waist where the bodice joins it. The hem line is long as expected and goes well below the knee, typical of 1930's style dresses. The beading patterns are not of any known pattern that we are familiar with; but take note, we are no fashion experts - so you will have to make your own judgements on this.

To help complete this early dress a vintage pink hat has been added. The vintage of the hat is unknown, but probably of the early 1950's period. The under side has a very faint glow under black light, and portions are glued, not sewn, probably indicating post W.W.II manufacture when laborious hand sewn items were already on the wayne. This hat is in VERY GOOD CONDITION showing age and some small stains here and there. The hat has no tags indicating the manufacturer.

When this long dress was purchased the same vendor had a almost perfect matching color pair of 2 1/2" high heeled "Mary Janes" (thats pumps with a ankle strap for those non-foot fetishists out there!). They are, as always,of a very small size. They are made of a canvas/duck type of uppers on all leather soles! They must have been very expensive by the looks of them. The dark pink color of these pumps matches the dress almost perfectly - every woman's dream! They have a nice suttle floral pattern, and a kick-ass light pink pin stripe around the throat and vamp and the ankle strap. They are age soiled so we rate them as only in GOOD CONDITION. If cleaned they would rate much higher, but we do not have the time to do that so we down-graded their condition rating. The style of these pumps would seem to indicate a close matching vintage to the dress - but who really knows? The inside size and code markings look like those found on such early period pieces. But we are no experts on this, so it's anybody's guess.

From the director's huge stocking collection a pair of pink-ish/beige, full fashioned stockings were added. They are much to heavy a material (looks like cotton?) for this summer weight dress - but their very close color match was felt to offset this making them a great match. They have a top welt and a very tiny secondary welt below that. There is a faded logo on the top welt that is unfortunately no longer readable. The heel and toe reinforcement is of the same color and material as the rest of the stocking. There is no reduction knitting on the heel and toe, and yet there is no bag foundon the heel and toe from their omission. While they are fully seamed, due to the heavy weight material, there are no needle marks found along side of each seam. There is no key-hole on the top welt either, probably all due to their heavier cotton weight material. Their condition is a LOW EXCELLENT showing no visible runs, only a minor stain or 2.

The next added item is a realy neat, fur stole. We believe that it is mink - but we are no fur experts. The stole is made out of 2 animals joined together side by side. They still have all of their bodily parts like eyes, noses, feet and (are you ready for this) claws! The sharp claws really make this stole impressive. The fur color is a nice compliment to the dark pinkish color dress. The 2 little critters are in almost MINT CONDITION with only 2 claws missing from 1 front foot. And of importance to the buyer - they have no offensive animal aroma, and no bugs (a common flaw found on the old furries still surviving today). This historical fur stole is a fine example of fur fashions of the era, and well worth preserving for a bygone era fashion display.

The last item added to go with this vintage dress is a W.W.II period pinic basket with a small cloth. We know the basket is from that period as it came out of a local barn here in Virginia that was full of 1940's junk - unfortunately all of it too bug/mouse eaten to salvage. The basket cloth that was added is unknown as to its vintage, so...... but it is thrown in for astestics only (probably is more modern).

Comments from the Curator:

This ensemble is very attractive. Its complete nature makes it mannequin ready - just add a slip. The sundry additions make this dress come alive and wouls make a great addition to any display where a lady need be included. It would take a long seach and a whole lot more money to try to duplicate this set. Here she is - ready to go (you bring the pinic food).

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