1940s Lavender-Gray Marquisette Evening Dress with Gold Cording

This is an elegant evening dress that is relatively low-cut in the front, and accompanied by a matching scarf to wrap around the neck. Both the skirt and the scarf are made of a smoky lavender-gray marquisette netting striped with yellow satin cord. Lining the entire dress is a taffeta slip of the same smoky lavender. The skirt has an interlayer of marquisette between the top layer and the lining, without the yellow cord.

The bodice is formed from two overlapping sections. The bodice is fitted via two diagonal bust darts, and ends at the natural waistline. The yellow cords on the bodice come together as they curse under the bust.

From the waist seam of this horizontally-striped bodice flows the floor-length skirt made from the same netting, decorated with vertical yellow stripes. The skirt flares into a circle shape as it reaches the floor, and the distance between the cords grows accordingly, creating a sunburst effect. The bodice is held up by a single spaghetti strap over each shoulder made from the same lavender netting and yellow cord.

Project by Chelsea Erlenborn
Professor: Kathryn Rohe
Spring, 1998