Black Lace!

So Shana left me a link in the comments to the sperm dress, (go check it out, it's hysterical!) and I found this dress at left browsing the seller's other items.

This is a gorgeous dress, although the waist is very defined (the waist measures 28", so you'd have to measure at least an inch less than that) and you'd probably have to wear a cincher of some sort under it. It's B38, too.

This one picture doesn't really do it justice -- go check out the auction, which has three days to run, and see the rest. The lace is a very nice rose pattern and seems to be in tip-top condition!

I really like the shape of this black lace dress -- I do still believe black lace is not for ingenues, and this is not an ingenue-style dress. It's designed for women, not girls. I'm so tired of slip dresses, strapless tube dresses, and drop-waist jersey monstrosities all designed for folks who are too young to know about Logan's Run or to worry about the concept if they did.

It's just pure laziness on the part of the designers, in My Opinion. Admit it -- almost anything looks good on a nineteen year old with flawless skin! You could dress most runway models in burlap and tin foil and they'd still look beautiful. (And I bet I could spend ten minutes on Style.com and find an example, honestly.) But older women are more demanding. They want to wear the dresses, not have the dresses wear them. They want to look good because of what they're wearing, not in spite of it. I think that's why I love vintage so much -- it seems to me as if the 1950s were the last time that women were the focus of designers' energies. Juniors patterns from the 1950s are all the same: puffy sleeves, big skirts, jumpers and party dresses. They are just one step up from little girls' clothes. The women's sizes, on the other hand, are triumphs of draping, with neckline variations and skirt details and cuffs and collars and sleeves of every kind. They're interesting, and they show interest.

It might be a supply-and-demand thing, that older women are buying "career" clothing (suits and whatnot) or that they've just stopped buying dresses that are either impossible to wear or unappealing, which makes for fewer dresses targeted to the older demographic. Whatever it is, I wish I knew how to turn it around.

Comments

[shana]

Hee. Glad you enjoyed the sperm dress. I LOVE thiis one--the square neckline, the cute sleeves, the full skirt! If only my waist were, um, like six inches smaller than it is. Ah well.

[Gidget Bananas]

The sperm dress -- inspired by the Kinsey Report, perhaps? I think the fact that the little spermatozoa are widely separated is hilarious, like the designer of the fabric wanted to make sure that anyone looking at the dress got a good clean look its theme.Or maybe we all have dirty minds, and that's really a beansprout dress.Nah, it's sperm.And hear hear about dresses for WOMEN!

[Jonquil]

I was really struck the other day. I saw the famous Irving Penn photo of a group of beautiful '50s models, posing like swans.There wasn't a single girl in the group. Those were *queens*. They were *women*. If you'd called them "girls", they'd have slain you with their stiletto heels.Any of them could have incinerated Kate Moss with the lift of a single eyebrow.

[Jilli]

This, right here, is close to my One True Dress. (I would want the skirt a smidge shorter, and the sleeves to be 3/4 at least.) I just keep looking at it, then bewailing the fact that I can't manage a 28" waist even with serious corsetry right now. If you ever see a dress in this style that would fit a 40-42" bust and a 33-34" waist, please tell me. I'll build a shrine to you.

[poetry_lady]

Every sperm is sacred, every sperm is good...The sperm dress is tooooo cute. And this black one is just gorgeious. Too bad it's far too small for me. :<

[Shiny Blue Black]

Seriously, someone could make real $$ by making these dresses.I second jilli's comment!

[carbonelle]

Like jilli, this is very nearly perfect (I too crave 3/4 length sleeves) but I was terribly disappointed by the discovery that it was black lace: On your page it looks a yummy tobacco brown.I know that black is svelte and elegant and all, but nothing beats that lovely dark, dark brown--and it's just about impossible to find.

[Floridaprincess]

MUA was just talking about the fertilty dress toinght so funny. I looked at the ebay auction the woman selling the fertility dress was selling this one too. I come over here to Dressaday here it is again hahah. I think this dress is fabby. I could actually wear it if I sucked in my waist a little. I love the style & cut & everything about this dress. I love it thats its in black.

[Floridaprincess]

I went & took a closer look at dress on ebay the dress is made by Jonathan Logan. I have a Jonathan Logan dress from the late 50's or early 60's it is taffeta with a belt made out of the same material as the dress. Sadly the belt broke a few years ago. My mom got me the dress at the thrift store on bag day for $2.50 this is what the dress and everything that she could shove in the bag cost. I am to big to wear the dress right now. I cant bear to part with it it is so elegant with its portrait collars. Someone did try to iron the taffeta collar so it is shiny there my mom thinks that's why it was at the thrift store. I never did care that it has a shiny iron mark on the collar you really cant tell unless you look close.