Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Vintage fabulous...

Inspired by Guilty Secret's posts on vintage wedding style, I revisited my very favourite dress site, The Frock. The Frock sells the most exquisite vintage dresses from Edwardian times right up to the 1980s and also sells a few more recent designer pieces.

I love all of these dresses and some of them are exactly what I dreamt of wearing when we started planning our wedding. Unfortunately there isn't a single one that isn't at least double my dress budget!

But I thought I would share them anyway as they are the most wonderful inspiration and just utterly gorgeous. Also, once I posted some dresses from The Frock on a wedding board and a very brave girlie bought one of the three I shared. She sent me pictures and damn, she looked fabulous! So if anyone decides to buy any of these I would love to know. Unless it's the Dior. Keep quiet if you buy the Dior. Unless you thought it would make a nice gift for a certain blogger with expensive taste, I don't want to know.



Here they are, gowns of distinction from c1910 to 1980....



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Silk satin and lace gown, circa 1910. $2600.

I love Edwardian style, it's so dignified and elegant. I nearly bought an Edwardian wedding dress very similar to this on ebay. But I was too frightened to press the button. The draping on this dress is so beautiful, unusual and modern. It reminds me of Vivianne Westwood's draped dresses which I adore. I also love the sleeves. Sleeves are so rare in a wedding dress these days, especially ones not made from skin tight lace.



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Champagne silk satin dress, Circa 1930 $2600

The perfect combination of detail and simplicity. The plain bodice with the jewelled detail and the skirt made from many pieces of satin sewn together in a V shape that evens out as it goes down the skirt.

Could the 1930s have been any more stylish?

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Damask silk dress, circa 1935. $1350

The fabric of this dress is so very regal, but the neckline and the trim of ruffled tulle brings a really young and innocent feeling to it.



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Lace dress, circa 1935. $2100

Lace, ruffles and a train to drown in. Exquisite. So elegant and tasteful. It's hard to find a 1930's dress that isn't tasteful. When did our fashion lose that?
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Peach ruffled Satin, circa 1935. $1700

Stunning stunning ruffles! Using ruffles without adding volume to a dress is a subtle art.


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White silk satin gown, circa 1940. $2600

I adore this. The neckline, the straps, the detailing and the way the fabric falls are all heavenly. Doesn't it look just like a Jenny Packham gown of now? For a pretty similar price I would much rather have this unique little number though.


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Sally Milgrim dress, circa 1945. $3400

Another perfectly modern and perfectly stylish dress. So very Greek Goddess. I have always been a silver girl but recently I have been falling for gold. I love this. Although it looks like it was made for a shorter woman than me.

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Christian Dior lace and tulle dress, circa 1950. $3600

Oh sweet dress, beautiful dress, perfect dress. How I love thee. How I wish to dance in your pretty layers and rest my hands on the tiny little waist you would give me. How I wish, how I wish....



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Adolfo Sardiña lace and chiffon gown, circa 1975. $3600

Subtle, feminine, romantic, modern. Pink. Don't forget pink.




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Oscar de la Renta, circa 1980.

Ok, this is couldn't be less my style but I thought the butt bow was hilarious! This dress could have been designed last week, it's the spitting image of quite a few dresses that made me raise my eyebrows in that way that tells whoever I'm with that I'm horrified without having to say a word. Put to perfect use in bridal shops when scary women are trying to dress you like a cream puff. Mr de la Renta has clearly improved with age. Although in the context of eighties wedding dresses this is actually rather tasteful.




All images from The Frock.

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for the link love :)

    What a great post... I absolutely adore the damask silk number. I think I could manage a train if it looked like that.

    I really love the colours too... I originally wanted champagne and now I remember why, but the peach, gold, even the pink... they're just some yummy!

    And that link to the eighties dress was just genius... when did they stop making trains from old duvets? It's a travesty! :-D

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  2. vintage oh so pretty! i too love the edwardian style. Check out my vintage post frm yesterday

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  3. I've loved the Adolfo Sardiña dress for a while now. If I was spending that much on a dress, I think I would get that one... it would look great on my petite but curvy figure. That said, justfying $3600 for a dress is impossible for me. I loved the Guilty Secret post too. I'm thinking of using 30's dresses as the model for my dress, if I get it made.

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  4. omg, i love. now i have no choice but to spend the morning trolling the site. vintage inspiration is the bestest.

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  5. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the first '30's dress... the one with the V-design on satin. LOVE it. Like, it's the very first dress I've seen that really and truly makes me sad that I already have a (perfectly lovely) dress. If I didn't, I'd be copying that sh*t! Wow. It's awesome, literally.
    Too bad it's 1) out of my budget and 2) probably too short/small for my 5'8" frame. But it is awesome!

    Thanks for the great posts! Very interesting. I've been loving the ones over at Guilty Secret too!!

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  6. Hmmm. The 80's really are back, aren't they?

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  7. GS, I love champagne too, it was what I thought I wanted for a while too. It's just such a gorgeous colour. And the dresses of the 80s are just mind boggling!

    Littlewinterbride, I love your vintage post! Vintage lace is my favourite!

    Meg, the 30s are without a doubt the most stylish era and if I had got a dress made I would have used them as inspiration too.

    lovelymorning, I hope you enjoyed the rest of the site, it's fabulous!

    Riley, you're welcome! It's hard not to get sad over the dresses that could have been.

    East side, they certainly are. I don't get it, they're the very worst fashion years to revive. Just let it die for God's sake!

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play nice.