Smithsonian - National Museum of American History, Behring Center
 


Costume Collection - Women's Dresses

Browse the Collection

Back

Dress, 2-Piece - click to enlarge

Click photos to enlarge.

Dress, 2-Piece

Catalogue number: CS*309722.004

Date: 1957

Maker: Lofties

Description:

Sea-green colored boucle knit in stockinette stitch; totally unlined; TOP-pullover; waist length; horizontal ribbing around waist; additional rows of ribs to create yoke, front and back; three-quarter length dolman sleeves with turn back cuff of ribbing; two worked buttonholes with plastic buttons at center front in yoke; ribbed foldover collar; blouson back created by gathers in bodice portion at center back yoke and at center back waist; bow of stockinette placed at center back waist; stay tape on inside where gathered; SKIRT-widely space vertical ribs; sewn on stockinette waistband; narrow ribbed hem.

Background:

The donor wore this dress in Waukesha, Wisconsin. She described it as a middle class "career girl dress." Such knit dresses were popular in the 1950s for both work and daytime social functions. Exhibited in Suiting Everyone: The Democratization of Clothing in America from 1974 to 1979.

Credit: Gift of Winifred M. Grout

Back