I have been excited to wear this 1950's (perhaps early 60's) wool dress ever since I got it in the middle of summer. It's nice to have things to look forward to! I love the colors in the fabric, but my favorite part is the inventive addition of the scarf. I decided to wear my hair up to show off my favorite bit of the dress.
The scarf swirls elegantly around the neck...
And is cleverly attached by a row of buttons. That way it can't go sliding off.
But you can also unbutton and detach the scarf, leaving you with a sweet and simple dress accented with an asymmetrical line of buttons.
I am not much of a fan of black, but that is the color of the tights and shoes I had to pair with this for work. It was 37 degrees when I left the house and I was wishing the tights were wool! Do my eyes look slightly wide and glazed in these pictures? That's because the liquid in them is frozen and so I'm not blinking ;)
I would have thought this dress was homemade, but no, it's an Ellen Kaye.
I found this fixer-upper and contemplated it a long while before buying. It was a great price, a great style, and exactly my size. BUT, the price was due to some serious condition issues. I decided to take the chance and try to salvage it. A three inch wide swath of the bottom edge of the skirt was gnawed by moths, in some places all the way through the lining. The seller had suggested just cutting off the bottom inch of hem, but that would have made it too short for me. The fabric was unstable around these spots and so I put a patch front and back to close the holes and stabilize the fabric. There were several in the black lining of the scarf as well.
I wore the dress for the first time today and several people mentioned how much they liked it. When I told them it had been repaired, they walked all the way around me and never noticed the patches. Success! Any vintage dress that I am able to rescue and make wearable makes me feel proud. There's a lot of winter left, so I'm going to find me some black wool tights.
Would you buy a dress you knew needed repair? Would you wear one with patches? I think I may just be a fan of the down-and-out underdogs of the vintage world :)
Enjoyed looking through this, very good stuff,
ReplyDeleteregards.
Thanks so much, come back to visit!
DeleteI would definitely wear a dress with repairs...I have & still do. Though I'm not very good at repairs myself so it would have to be super simple for me to attempt it.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love this dress. I really enjoy seeing all the great treasures you find.
I am pretty terrible at repairs, but I am committed to trying! I'm so glad you like seeing the things I find, it is so fun to share them with you!
DeleteThanks for one's marvelous posting! I truly enjoyed reading it, you
ReplyDeletemight be a great author. I will make sure to bookmark your
blog and may come back down the road. I want to encourage you to definitely continue your great job, have a nice holiday weekend!
Thanks so much and I hope you'll visit again!
DeleteWow! Thank you! I constantly needed to write on my website something like that.
ReplyDeleteCan I take a fragment of your post to my website?
Thank you very much for reading! No writing or photographs from my posts are for public use unless permission is given. If you would like to borrow portions of a post, please email me at mssamwearsdresses@gmail.com. I'd be happy to discuss it with you!
DeleteThanks for your article. I enjoy reading your words. And this dress gives me a sense of elegancy.
DeleteYou are so welcome, I'm just delighted that you came to visit!
DeleteI would wear a dress with patches. I feel that repairing is a great idea in life.
ReplyDeleteI love that you feel that way! There are so many wonderful things out there- clothing, furniture, etc- that just needs some TLC to be useful and beautiful again!
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