A brilliant afternoon’s study at the Fashion Museum, Bath, with a rack full of Mary Quant, Dior, Courreges, Rochas and more, sixties shift dresses with Anna Glasbrook and Desiree Goodall. We were allowed to touch, but only with white, cotton gloves, and to make notes with pencils – no pens allowed!
Anna, Desiree and I are all textile constructionists, so we focussed on the construction of the shift dresses, rather than the dresses with print and embroidery. As you can see in the gallery below we selected a lot of ‘plain’ dresses, with no surface treatments, but they were made fascinating by the proportions and lines used by the designers (how the body is divided up either through lines, or blocks of colour or fabric). Very inspiring for me, because any fabric I weave by hand will probably not be wide enough to cut the front of a shift dress in one piece.
The suprising difference between dresses now and from 1960s was the weight of the fabrics – really quite heavy, and some gorgeous fabrics. The other surprise was the individuality in the making of the dresses; the linings and the hems, not just the design were all finished differently. Looking closely we found evidence of attention to detail, with hand-stitched construction – quite a few zips were hand-stiched, and that the majority of garments were finished as exquisitely on the inside as the outside.
We would like to thank the Fashion Museum study facilities, again, for a fabulous afternoon.
In the gallery below, each image is identified by the unique number given to the dress by the Fashion Museum and the known details; sometimes the exact year is not known so a range is given. All images in this blog post are courtesy of the Fashion Museum, Bath & North East Somerset Council,
Which dress is your favourite?
Penny Wheeler
BATMC I.09.638, Rochas, 1968 – 1969, wool plain weave. The first dress we examined and our favourite, we loved the clever seam lines.
BATMC I.09.638, Rochas, 1968 – 1969, wool plain weave. Hopefully you can see the seam lines better here.
BATMC I.09.638, Rochas, 1968 – 1969, wool plain weave. The front seam lines are continued through to the back of the dress.
BATMC I.09.638, Rochas, 1968 – 1969, wool plain weave. The seam lines descend from the bodice into soft pleats.
BATMC I.09.638, Rochas, 1968 – 1969, wool plain weave. Desiree found the secret of the soft pleats – cutting the seam allowance and then pressing the seam in the opposite direction.
BATMC I.09.638, Rochas, 1968 – 1969, wool plain weave. The back is quite plain except for the seam lines in the bodice.
BATMC 94.22, unknown, 1966 – 1970 synthetic, back (the front is the same just without the zip). Fantastic space age shift dress. It comes with a belt – not sure where the belt should be in relation to the holes!
BATMC I.09.884. Nina Ricci, 1967, silk in plain weave (also has a separate coat).
BATMC I.09.884. Nina Ricci, 1967, silk in plain weave. The back view.
BATMC 2000.412, Mary Quant, 1965 – 1969, wool felt. Beautiful dress with elegant, vertical seam lines that probably make it more of a sheath dress than a shift dress because they are also acting as waist darts.
BATMC 2000.412, Mary Quant, 1965 – 1969, wool felt. Lovely neckline.
BATMC 2000.412, Mary Quant, 1965 – 1969, wool felt. Love the button and seam line detail giving a belt metaphor.
BATMC 2000.412, Mary Quant, 1965 – 1969, wool felt. Anna is showing how the belt metaphor detail is taken all the way around the dress and not seamed at the sides.
BATMC 2000.412, Mary Quant, 1965 – 1969, wool felt. Back – with hand-stitched zip and waist darts again. I think this would be quite a fitted dress.
BATMC I.09.1387, by Stoomwever’j N’jverheid, N.V. , 1961 – 1965, cotton, plain weave, printed. Fun print! – identical print on the back too.
BATMC I.09.396, Debebnham & Freebody, 1960 – 1969, silk synthetic, woven (brocade) quilted. Amazingly heavy dress with beautiful godets in the skirt.
BATMC I.09.396, Debebnham & Freebody, 1960 – 1969, silk synthetic, woven (brocade) quilted. Look at the fabric in those godets!
BATMC I.09.396, Debebnham & Freebody, 1960 – 1969, silk synthetic, woven (brocade) quilted, front detail. The front shaping probably means that the bodice was quite fitted – again not strictly a shift dress.
BATMC I.09.396, Debebnham & Freebody, 1960 – 1969, silk synthetic, woven (brocade) quilted, back. The rear shaping is probably to reduce excess fabric that is associated with a shift dress.
BATMC I.09.396, Debebnham & Freebody, 1960 – 1969, silk synthetic, woven (brocade) quilted. The godets are separate pieces sewn onto the main dress.
BATMC I.09.876, Courreges, 1965 – 1969, woven, detail. The lining is cut to the shape of the shift dress.
BATMC I.09.876, Courreges, 1965 – 1969, woven, front.
BATMC I.09.876, Courreges, 1965 – 1969, woven, rear. Love the double stitching detail either side of the back seam continuing from the zip.
BATMC I.09.876, Courreges, 1965 – 1969, woven, rear detail. The fabric is quite heavy and the sleeve almost fixed into place.
BATMC I.09.604, Switzerland Fortnum & Mason, 1957 – 1959, silk woven, front. Very bold pattern but probably a sheath dress rather than a shift dress – as indicated by the front waist darts.
BATMC I.09.604, Switzerland Fortnum & Mason, 1957 – 1959, silk woven, front neckline detail. Lovely pleated neckline.
BATMC I.09.604, Switzerland Fortnum & Mason, 1957 – 1959, silk woven, rear. Pleated neckline is continued from the front.
BATMC I.09.604, Switzerland Fortnum & Mason, 1957 – 1959, silk woven, rear kick pleat. The backing for the rear kick pleat is attached to the lining of the dress.
BATMC I.09.604, Switzerland Fortnum & Mason, 1957 – 1959, silk woven, rear detail. Notice the wear – threads have been pulled causing small elements of the print to move.
BATMC I.09.879 Mary Quant, 1966, knitted wool. Such a fun dress – very much ‘little girl’ style. The seams are almost invisible – each colour is a different piece of fabric – I had to check to tell there were seams!
BATMC I.09.879 Mary Quant, 1966, knitted wool. Just to prove it is Mary Quant – the back is plain.
Not catalogued, Christian Dior Boutique, 1960’s, black velvet with embellished bib. The black velvet sets off the embroidery nicely. The neck looked as though it could be quite tight with hooks and eyes to fasten it at the back.
BATMC 2001.458, unknown, quilted fabric. Vertical seam lines and hidden pockets. I like the double self-stripe running vertically down the dress.
BATMC 2001.458, unknown, quilted fabric, back.
BATMC 2001.458, unknown, quilted fabric, back. Shoulder darts with the seam lines.
BATMC I.09.623, 1964 – 1967, wool (mohair) woven, front.
BATMC I.09.623, 1964 – 1967, wool (mohair) woven. Interesting fabric construction somewhere between knit and weave.
BATMC I.09.616, 1960 – 1963, slub silk, woven, front. This has a very twenties feel. It comes with a belt – not sure what that would look like!
BATMC I.09.616, 1960 – 1963, slub silk, woven, front inside pleat detail.
BATMC I.09.616, 1960 – 1963, slub silk, woven, rear. Includes side panels – the zip doesn’t work well on the side panel seam.
BATMC 2004.409, Finnish designer possibly Timo Sarpaneva, cotton, woven printed, front.
BATMC 2004.409, Finnish designer possibly Timo Sarpaneva, cotton, woven printed, rear.
seam 
[…] can read more about our trip to the Fashion Museum, Bath on Penny Wheeler’s blog post for […]
[…] I will be using Krokbragd, a three shaft rug weaving technique. Weaving with finer yarns such as lurex, chenille, glitter yarns and cottons, I will create a heavy fabric, similar to the quilted brocades used to make the shift dresses in the Fashion Museum in Bath (images courtesy of the Fashion Museum, Bath & North East Somerset Council). For more about this visit see Penny Wheeler’s blog post. […]