Dresses telling stories

One of my favorite blogs,Dressaday blog has a feature, called The secret lives of dresses. in those blog entries, Erin imagines the life of who might have worn a vintage dress from one of the many vintage dress sites on the web.

Vivian just gave me a batch of dresses from her mother, Ruth. I knew Ruth for at least twenty five years.

The Secret Lives of Dresses blog entries are written about clothing worn by women unknown by Erin. Knowing Ruth, the stories told by these dresses is pretty easy for me to see.

This is the oldest of the dresses. it boasts a Miami Casuals label. you can see that it was similar to the dresses in this Miami Casuals advertisement from 1956. Miami Casuals sold to Florida department stores, like Burdines.

Miami Casuals tended to make dresses in a limited number of basic shapes , but they were very inventive with embellishment.

you can see the couched cord floral motif that is further embellished with padding and a few rhinestones added for good health.

One of the hips has a similar array of embellishments, with the added bonus of the pink flounce.

Ruth must have been fairly young, and very thin when she bought this dress. Seeing this dress, I had such a strong feeling that Ruth was sent to Miami to find an eligible husband. This dress was part of that strategy. Ruth was blond. she must have looked lovely in this dress.

A few seasons later, she was still unmarried. Another visit to Florida, and yet another dress.

This sarong look dress in polished cotton has attached matching panties so you flash your leg with confidence. I remember Vivian wearing this dress on some hot summer Shabbat mornings.

This next dress is from the late 1959’s. It’s no longer a young girl’s dress that Rose bought for herself.

This is a man-catching dress.

I don’t know if Ruth wore this dress to the singles weekend at Grossinger’s where she met her husband, Oscar. But I could certainly see this dress doing it’s magic on a young man.

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