I found these in a Salvation Army shop. They hung on the wall for weeks. Originally there were three little dresses and a coat and every time I went in, I admired them, but I never thought about buying them. That is until one day, one of the dresses was gone. I thought it was heartbreaking that these little dresses that looked like they'd been together for decades were being seperated, so I bought what was left, just to make sure they stayed together.
This first dress, is blue nylon with silver lace and soucatache trim. It's labelled as being Spinney brand, which I know nothing about but googling the name shows lots of clothing advertisements from the 60s and 70s. It's size 20, assuming that's the chest measurement in inches, that's about a size 2 by my estimation. Somewhere I have a matching hair ribbon or sash. That sounds vague but it seems to thick and huge to be a hair ribbon for a two year old, so that doesn't make sense. But the dress has an attached sash, so another one makes no sense either.
It looks like something is missing from the bodice. Bows maybe? I like the idea of bluebirds there for some reason.
This second dress, with cute little embroidered toadstools, is labelled "Rio Frocks by Betta Bonnets". The grand sum of information I've been able to find out about this label is that Betta Bonnets was an Australian company, that ceased trading in 1978.
But this dress has a cute little matching bonnet.
And a patch of discolouration on the front that I wouldn't be brave enough to try to remove, even if I knew how.
Next is this gorgeous, cherry red coat.
I don't think the fur trim is real? Unless maybe it's from some kind of wild felt teddy bear? But I can't really say for certain. The back of my brain suggests it's Australian but I'm not even a hundred percent sure what that is so wouldn't bet on it.
This one is labelled J.Oshlack. I couldn't find any trace of that company at all.
But I have two favourite things about this coat. The first is the intricate labelling to create the right shape on the back. I can't imagine any company bothering with that these days.
The other thing is that the collars are separate! The actual coat looks like this
But then there are three extra collars. A matching cape collar. A soft, lacy knitted collar. And a weird little fur collar.
They can be worn in various combinations, or left off altogether. The red one clearly belongs to the coat. The coat has little buttons under it's collar to button it on.
The little, creamy, lace collar, really looks too perfect to be home made, but I prefer to think it was the handiwork of some clever, loving mother or grandmother.
The fur collar is clearly commercially produced. It's tagged "Made in Japan" and even has creepy, little animal heads attached.
To top it all off, there's a (filthy) nylon parasol.
That's all for now.
The little, creamy, lace collar, really looks too perfect to be home made, but I prefer to think it was the handiwork of some clever, loving mother or grandmother.
The fur collar is clearly commercially produced. It's tagged "Made in Japan" and even has creepy, little animal heads attached.
To top it all off, there's a (filthy) nylon parasol.
That's all for now.
Ohhah I love that red coat, the cut is simply gorgeous! You wouldn't see that sort of detail in a child's coat today. The dresses are very sweet too, are you going to keep them all Rachael?
ReplyDeleteOshlack & Company Pty. Ltd. in Brunswick, used to import coats back in the 1980's if that's any help.
Big hugs,
X
Thanks for that info!
DeleteI'm definitely keeping them for the moment. I still don't like the idea of them potentially being separated. I have a vague idea of maybe getting some pics of little girl in them when she's bigger but I'll probably forget until she's too big and I'd be nervous about them getting damaged anyway.
What cute clothes, and that coat is phenomenal. Nice that the collars are separate. At least the knitted collar could have been washed back in the day when a little girl was wearing the coat. My mother has some pictures of my youngest daughter in one of the baby dresses that my mother wore in the 30s. Too bad we're not speaking anymore.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I missed your post about your big move, but I'm glad that you survived it, and I hope unpacking is going well. It's funny to see you and Xanadu talk about views, as Northeast Ohio is incredibly flat land, scraped by the glaciers that also created the Great Lakes. That being said, I think I prefer Lake Erie to mountains, even if I can't see Lake Erie from my window. In temperature here, it's gone down to -19C as the *high* for a day this week, so you'd probably hate it. :)
I've been seeing things all over the internet about how could it is in the US right now and wow it seems cold! But in a kind of abstract way. The coldest it gets here is -2c, maybe -3 And that's at 3 or 4 am when I'm sleeping anyway. So the idea of a lot of the temperatures I've been reading about, just don't compute for me. I really can't even begin to imagine anything like that kind of cold. But I know I hope I never have to experience it firsthand!
Deletevery nice collection. i like it.
ReplyDeleteWinter Dresses For Girls