Early 1920s Silk Dress Ensemble

This dress is one of those rare, delicious treats from the early 1920s jazz era...the time in fashion history that exuded both daring and as well as risqué elegance. 

This sheer dress with matching sheer liner or petticoat is dripping with lace and made entirely of silk. It would have taken weeks to create, as it is literally covered with heavily padded, ivory white on white hand embroidery. 

The photographs best describe the absolute beauty of the silken lace. Both pieces are original to the overall design and the dress dates to circa 1921-1924. 

The sensation of the silk upon your hand is memorable. It is designed with white on white, heavily padded hand embroidery and the dress is fully hand sewn.  

The period green silk ribbon will be included with the dress. It measures slightly over 2 yards or about 185 cm in length. It was used to tie up the outer overdress without putting strain on the silk. Again, this will work for display purposes...or a restoration may allow adequate strength within the casings. Originally, it appears that thin silk ribbons ran through the ruffled waist casings found within the interior of both the overdress and underdress. It appears these were designed so that they would have been pulled taut again the hips. This created a magnificent draped silhouette that emphasized the waist and hips. The original ribbons were not with the dress when the collection was presented. 

Of course, typical to this period in fashion history, no fasteners were used and the dress simply slips over the head. The original owner would have worn a simple silk slip beneath, in an ivory or very light pastel color of her choosing. 

The dress has a bust measurement of 32-33 inches or 81 to 84 cm. The hip measurement is a slightly generous 36 inches or 91.5 cm. 

The dress has a dropped hip silhouette that is approximately 3.5 to 4 inches or 9 to 10 cm off the natural waist. The overall length of the underdress from the back shoulder seam to the very bottom of the lace edge at hem is approximately 49.5 inches or 126 cm. The overdress is shorter so as to show the glorious lace of the underdress beneath. The overdress has a total length from the shoulder to bottom hem measuring approximately 47.5 inches or 121 cm.