Guess the decade!

A head-and-shoulder portrait of a redheaded woman in a pale green dress with a navy and white print.The dress, not me. I’m happy to confirm I was released in 1974.

I got this dress on eBay last month. I thought it looked late 60s/early 70s, especially given the geeometric print, and I really liked the colours, but now I’ve got it, I’m not so sure of that date. For one thing, the collar’s quite small, and even though this was – let’s be truthful – not a trendy garment when it was made, I’d have expected it to be larger, in keeping with the fashionable dagger collars of the day. And that made me wonder… is this from the 80s, designed for older ladies but with a nod to styles of 20 years earlier because that's what they were comfortable with? The label’s no help; it simply says ‘Deenie of London’. The seams are raw, not overlocked.

It’s a fairly thin polyester knit, much lighter in weight than my 60s crimplene, so I’ve been wearing it round the house even on warm days (though not in the recent heatwave). It’s nice and stretchy, so is comfy for working in – I don’t want to spend all day with stuff digging in round the middle when no-one but Mr Robot’s going to see it, and even he sees very little of me in work hours. It doesn't stretch quite enough to avoid the dreaded button gape, so I'm thinking of just sewing the front up – the dress pulls on over my head, so I don't need to be able to button or unbutton it.
The collar of a pale green dress with a navy and white print.
The collar seems to restrained to be late 60s/70s to me... What do you think?
To be honest, I wasn't sure whether to put this last photo up as I do look larger than usual, but hey, it's my lockdown weight gain. I look larger because, well, I am.  As you can see, the dress has quite prominent belt loops, and if I put a belt on it'd be quite close to my bust (when I make my own tops, I have to add extra inches vertically as well as horizontally to account for the extra curve the fabric has to cover). So I might cut the loops off altogether. As every hourglass figure will tell you, belts draw attention to the waist... and as a definite non-hourglass that's something I don't need!
A redheaded woman in a pale green dress with a navy and white print.

Comments

  1. That's a gorgeous dress, Mim, and very much up my street. But I presume that you'd already guessed that ;-) In fact, that print look so familiar to me that I might very well have a blouse or dress in a similar print. I often remove the belt loops from my dresses. They are hardly ever in the right place for me, either. You can always add a belt in the desired place when you'd feel the need to in future. xxx

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    1. Yes, I keep looking at it and thinking, "How would Ann style this?"

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  2. I don't know, Mim. It reminds of the dresses our residents wore when I did my nurse training in the 1970s; we always added a toning cardigan also in polyester, to complete the look!

    Take care
    xxx

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    1. I was considering a navy cardigan! Or possibly a cream one.

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  3. Someone might have altered the collar later on to keep it fashionable. I'm always cutting off belt loops on dresses. You might prefer a loose chain belt that can hang below your waist. Contrary to popular opinion, I do think belts work on all bodies-you just need the right belt.

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    1. Oooh, I do have a 70s chain belt with a dragon on the end somewhere...

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  4. It’s a lovely dress, have you researched the brand? It sounds like a 50’s brand, I had to get rid of my vintage clothing we had an attack of moths, and when I realised it was too late. So we had to get the closet fumigated. So back to Japanese style for me.

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    1. I had a look, but could only find stuff from the 60s-80s.

      I hate moths with a passion - every late spring I haul everything out of my wardrobe and spray it with mothproofer, and I have anti-moth hangers there and in the coat cupboard. One of the good things about moving to later decades is moths won't eat crimplene - that stuff's indestructible.

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  5. I'd say it was late 1980s or even 1990s but it's neither here nor there, the colour looks great on you and it feels good to wear. Definitely snip off the belt loops, they are never in the right place! xxx

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    1. Yeah it really is an odd dress, isn't it? I think it was an old lady dress in its day, so was designed with an earlier era in mind, hence what a confusing garment it is.

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  6. I always cut of belt loops they are never ever in the right place for me either, makes you wonder who those elusive people are who they do sit right on!

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    1. People with INSANELY PERKY BOOBS. Or very short torsos. (I'm five foot five, as average as you can get. And I'm not especially long-bodied as far as I can tell.)

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