If there's one thing you need to know about me it's that I'm obsessed with the fifties and sixties. I'd say I was born in the wrong era, but this little mixed gal knows she doesn't have the thick skin needed to survive in those times. But seriously, if I had a Delorean and flux compositor I'd totally hop back to every year from 1950-1969 and raid every little shop that I could find and take home some authentic vintage goodies.
So, you'll be able to imagine my excitement when I found a genuine vintage dress at Goodwill. It's this adorable, little, pink totally mod scooter dress. I swear it would fit right into That Girl's closet.
When I got this dress back in May, it not only fit much better, but I also knew very little about dating vintage clothing. Naturally, I went to the good ole reliable Google for some help. I found two awesome resources the first was the wonderful Sammy Davis Vintage website that has an abundance of articles explaining the best ways to identify and date vintage clothing. And the second was a great little book called The Little Guide to Vintage Shopping by Melody Fortier. The next thing I did was I sat down with my dress and went through it with a fine tooth comb.
Labels
The first thing that I looked at was the tag on the inside. I'd never heard of Vogue Couturier Design. So, I went and looked at the Vintage Fashion Guild's Vintage Label directory and quickly figured out that the labels were included in Vogue sewing patterns back in the day. This means this dress was homemade, which was far more common in the 30s-70s before the mass production of clothing took over. After doing a little bit more digging, I was able to locate the pattern that was used on Vintage Patterns Wiki. The pattern was Vogue 2065 and it first appeared as part of the Vogue Couturier Collection in 1969. So, right away I knew that the dress couldn't have been made before 1969.
At this point I was fairly confident that I had an authentic vintage piece in my hands. But I still looked at a few other things.
Zippers
Before the 1960s metal zippers were the norm, but by the end of the decade plastic zippers were used in nearly all mass produced clothing. However, metal zippers were still very common among home seamstresses, so, it's not out of the norm to see metal zippers in a dress like mine.
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| I could have sworn I was smiling in these pictures. |
From the little bit of research I've done I found out that it was home made using Vogue Couturier Design 2065. Which was first seen in Vogue Pattern Fashion News January 1969. If I had seen the pattern and decided I need to make it, the pattern alone goes for anywhere from $45 to $75. So, it'd be a bit of an understatement to say that I got it for a steal at a total of $21 after a few minor repairs.
Sources Used:
http://sammydvintage.com/vintage-style/how-to-date-clothing-vintage/
http://sammydvintage.com/vintage-style/dating-vintage-clothing-construction/
The Little Guide to Vintage Shopping by Melody Fortier
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