Featured Edwardian wedding dress

A couple weeks ago, me and my male friend always hunt for vintage clothing, he pulled this out of a bin and said, hey Billy, want this one. He doesn't know to much about vintage clothing.
Well, I guess I am still learning also.
This dress does not have any labels, so wondering what exact era it was made. The Tulle seems to be old.

Thank You

 

It is lovely, Billy. I think more recent than Edwardian, but others will know more.

 

A lovely dress, I could see a bride into vintage wearing that today. I agree with AJ, probably into 1930's-40's and reason for no label would be that dress was either home or local seamstress sewn.
Getting it cleaned before sale probably wouldn't be cost effective, but if you have a home steamer, it would present better. Maybe even hang it in bathroom through the course of a few showers.

 

I'd go with the latter - kill two birds with one water usage. Pinked seams mean early 1960s or earlier. The basque waist ... my guess would be early 40s into the very early 50s. It has a distinct influence from Gone With the Wind and other antebellum fashion, and I'm thinking it was made after the movie came out.

 

Billy, I think you'd look great in it !!.........................................................

 

Hi,
reminds me of the wedding gown we found in a used clothing store. It was $17.99.
We were going to a Halloween costume party. The gown was a very heavy silk from the 1920s. After the party a friend who was very high up in the clothing business asked if he could have the gown. He was getting married and his future wife really liked the gown. She wanted to get married in it!!!!! So there we were at the wedding and all of the VIPs were discussing who designed her wedding gown. People there were Bill Blass, Ralph Lauren, Vera Wang etc. They would have died to find out the source of the wedding gown was a second hand store in Chinatown. I could hardly stand the gossip about the dress. They were all in agreement in it being a very wonderful silk but the thinking was a designer in Milan or Paris just did the dress. If they only knew the history behind the dress.
greg

 

They may have been right, and antique items take all sorts of trajectories. Where it had been in the meantime was none of their beeswax.

 

Thanks again Any Jewelry...

 

Very cool Sandra, I do have a steamer, rather use that than to hang in bathroom while showering, what if the previous owners ghost seen me naked...LOL..

 

Great reply Evelyn, Gone with the Wind gives me ideas.

 

Haha, I don't roll that way, only on weekends, lol...NOT...

 

Yes, a LOVELY dress Billy, and I agree with the 1950's date .. the lace appears to be from that era as does the style. Joy. ..

 

Thanks Joy..1950's aint worth much then, chucks...

 

It may be exactly what someone is looking for Billy, try to get the creases out and hopefully you will make some profit on it. Keep your chin up, the dress is very nice, Joy.

 

It is silk, which is a bonus. Nice colour too. And if you get the creases out it will look so much better. And better means more money.

 

I'm unconvinced this is silk, the weave looks wrong and it's shiny in the wrong way,too. I suspect rayon or similar, especially as it's 1950s ish. Threads aren't right, either. The best way of being sure is a burn test on a thread.

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/2013/06/20/how-to-identify-fabrics-with-a-burn-test

And this, although I'd not use as much fabric: https://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/Burn-Test-Chart.html

I would be very very wary of steaming it unless you've done a great deal of it. Rayon doesn't always react well to that, and silk can pucker badly. Hang it in a steamy room for a while.

 

I'm curious about the size/dimensions of the dress -- length, shoulder width, bust area circumference, waist (where a "physical" waist would be if this were not a "dropped waist").

 

Okay, Thanks Joy for those words...

 

Okay, when I get time, I will do a burn test.

 

Yikes! Why do people want to resort to hot needles and burning to ID something? Scares the bejeesus out of me because it can go so very wrong.

It looks like sateen to me. You could look in your area and find a seamstress and bring it over. A person who works with fabric every day could probably ID it without any trouble. Also, a local fabric shop could help. I'm not sure if a clerk at one of the big chains like Joanne's would know, but we have a small, local fabric shop here in town and they are very knowledgable.