Green day dress consisting of a jacket and skirt, silk twill foulard, Christian Dior haute couture Spring/Aummer 1947, en Huit line, Paris, France

Day dress consisting of a jacket and skirt made from green silk twill foulard with small white spots. The bodice has a tailored collar with lapels, long batwing sleeves, and tightly fitting at the wrist. It is tightly fitted at the waist and has a centre front fastening of three covered buttons. The skirt is softly gathered at the waistband and is straight cut. 'New Look' length. It is full at the front with two vertical open insets. It has a centre back zip fastening. It has a triangular handkerchief attached at the front and arranged to drape behind.

Given by Mrs Joseph Alsop

This dress is from Dior's s/s 1947 'New Look' collection.

It was worn and given by Mrs Joseph Alsop (nee Susan Mary Patten), the wife of the the American journalist (Joseph Wright Alsop V, 1910-89). They were married from 1960 to 1972. They had no children.
(See Merry, Robert W. Taking on the World: Joseph and Stewart Alsop – Guardians of the American Century (New York: 1996), p.360-365.

THE NEW LOOK panel text from The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-1957

Dior launched his new house on 12 February 1947 and became an overnight sensation. His voluptuous collection was the antithesis of lean, boxy wartime fashions. Instead, feminine designs featured rounded shoulders, a womanly bust and a hand-span waist above enormous skirts. It was christened on the spot by Carmel Snow, editor of American Harper's Bazaar, as the 'New Look'.

The amount of fabric required to create a New Look garment - typically 15 metres in a woollen day dress, 25 metres in a short taffeta evening gown - caused outrage, for rationing was still in place. The collection was shown in secret to Princess Margaret at the French Embassy in London. But despite attempts by the Board of Trade to suppress it, the New Look was unstoppable.

Spring/Summer 1947

Attribution note: Possibly. It is also possible that this could be a ready-to-wear version - there is no label, and the inside is crudely finished.

Christian Dior (1905-57) launched his couture house in February 1947. Although known for the heavy corsetting and complicated construction of his early collections, not all of Dior's designs relied on complex underpinnings.

This lightweight, unlined dress achieves volume through a draped skirt. Dior typically countered the close fitting bodice with Magyar sleeves, which gave ease of movement. The dress has no label and may have been a version of the original by Christian Dior New York, which Dior launched in 1948.

T.115&A-1974