Featured Vintage Chinese Silk Dress

Hi Folks

A chinese style (or origin) silk dress i picked up this week

my gut feeling is about 50s, but could be way off

traditional chinese made, or inspired by ?

any help appreciated

 

That is lovely Charlie

 

thanks Pearls, believe you me...thats the bust and hips set to the smallest, but still looks a bit too curvy

 

Hard to date on style alone as traditional-ish. Looks like a nylon zipper. That would make it late-1960s onward.

Debora

 

That ruffled sleeve is also very 1960s. Here's Jean Shrimpton in Mary Quant in 1964.

Debora

 

thanks Deb, yeah the zipper is actually metal, but the zip itself is nylon.
i don't believe the lining to be silk ( though haven't tested that part)

 

Beautiful fabric!

 

Those nylon coil zippers were introduced in 1968-ish. The trouble with vintage clothing of this type is it was tailor made for a client so it's not going to be a standard dress size. A bit harder to sell.

Debora

 

not a surprise to me, and wasn't asking about the size............

but thanks for the negative thought.......again

Charles

 

.......forgot to mention.....twas for my pink chinese dress collection
........but seems some people are more interested in my bank account

 

Possibly acetate. That would have been right for period.

 

Gorgeous dress, charlie. Probably custom made in Hongkong.
I wanted to have a Chinese style dress made in Hongkong, when I was there as a teen. My parents had given me some beautiful green silk brocade with white prunus blossoms for my birthday, which I celebrated while in Hongkong. I wanted to have the shop make it into a dress, but my mother said she would do it when we got back home. She never did.

Some of us are curvy.

It was because of my curves that I was once asked to model Indonesian clothing. But I was in my final year of school, and my parents said I had to focus on my exams. I said I could do both, my grades were good. But I had already been a teen model in Australia, and they probably didn't want to go through the hassle of chaperoning me again.

Anyone can admire the esthetics of a Chinese silk dress, and to have a collection is wonderful.
But if you were to sell it, standard sizes are for standard women. And as we all know, there are no standard women. Fitted dresses are bought based on measurements and the possibility to alter a dress.

 

Great stuff, thanks Aj

the size/money side of it wasn't really why i bought it, but just saw it glistening at me as i left the shop.....so had to investigate

i know one little lady it'll fit (but she's already nicked my silver fur already, so i'm 2 minded whether to sell or not)

 

I'm a sucker for brocade too, but those little dresses are all I ever see. The unused fabrics do turn up once in a while, but it's rare.

 

In the vintage clothing world (of which I've been a practicing member since 1999), when we talk about a "metal zipper" we are indeed referring to one with metal teeth, we are not talking about the zipper pull.

 

fascinating stuff.........

you can call them all you want in america (in that vintage clothing world of yours)

doesn't make it right.......cause i don't.......i call it a zip

 

Naming the Zipper
The popular "zipper" name came from the B. F. Goodrich Company, which decided to use Sundback's fastener on a new type of rubber boots or galoshes. Boots and tobacco pouches with a zippered closure were the two chief uses of the zipper during its early years. It took 20 more years to convince the fashion industry to seriously promote the novel closure on garments.


In the 1930s, a sales campaign began for children's clothing featuring zippers. The campaign advocated zippers as a way to promote self-reliance in young children as the devices made it possible for them to dress in self-help clothing.




u can call a car boot a car boot .... but I'm telling ya, cars don't wear Boots !!!

.......

 

.......gonna take a bit of thinking about that one mate (late).........

.......i'm just glad were not still taking about ing zips

 

once again , I'm proven wrong !!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure if it's wearing a boot or being a boot ....... but it's aboot time I got my comeuppance......... Heehehe!!!!