Or, the continuing story of a vintage dress
On one day in c. 1949, a beautiful iridescent gingham taffeta dress was made. This is about that dress.
Although it doesn’t have a maker’s label, from the size tag, I can say definitively that it was commercially made in the U.S. Can’t you see the original wearer swirling about in her dress?
Fun fact: Did you know that there is a name for the distinctive rustling sound that taffeta makes? The sound is called scroop, a late 18th-century word blending scrape and whoop!
At some point—perhaps when fashions changed, or the wearer changed—the dress was carefully saved. I don’t know the full story of the dress from that point until the new millennium, but perhaps it was worn by another lucky soul in the 1950s.
2005
What I do know is that I was entrusted with the sale of the dress in 2005.
By then, wearing vintage was gradually becoming more mainstream, and the dress sold to another appreciator. More scrooping commenced!
Then, ten years later, the woman who purchased the dress was ready to pass it on to the next wearer. I photographed it on beautiful Sarah, and it is now for sale in my Etsy shop, specifically in the Pink Heart Shop section of my store.
All proceeds from items purchased from the Pink Heart Shop go to Dress for Success, an international not-for-profit organization that empowers women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.
If this dress could only talk, we might hear of all its wearers, the joy it has in its beauty and scroop, and its pride in passing from one stylish, interesting and caring person to another.
Click to view the gingham dress in my Etsy shop. (affiliate link)