Caring for Antiques
Expert advice plus looking a!er antique frames
I’m a long-time subscriber to
Homes & Antiques and hope that one of your experts can tell me about this dress that I purchased from a vintage boutique in Toronto, Canada. I believe it to be an early 1950s Dior cocktail dress that was made by the London branch of Dior.
The boutique described the dress as a Christian Dior (1953) black silk ta "eta tulip skirt with bustle dress. It’s fully lined with an overskirt and a large bow at the back. It also has a boned interior corset and a long metal zip marked ‘Lightning’. The main seams are sewn by machine, but there is also a great deal of hand-# nishing inside the dress.
There are some issues with condition including the seam around the underarm that has begun to shred. The hem is also loose and needs repairing.
I would love to learn more about this dress – in particular, when it was made, and if it was designed by Dior himself. Jennifer Morawiecki, Canada
This beautiful dress is typical of Christian Dior’s designs of the mid 1950s. The ‘tulip’ line was shown particularly in 1957 and I would date the dress to that year. In 1958, Marc Bohan began designing for Dior’s London line but the design of your dress is much more typical of Christian Dior than of Bohan, so I’d place it just before he started designing for Dior.
Dior dresses and gowns of this period are highly desirable and an auction estimate would be £1,000-£ 2,000. RG