[Warning: This post is not very sewing-related.]
There’s been a bit of chit-chat lately on some of my favorite sewing blogs about prom fashion. It’s making me nostalgic for my own prom. Well, to be perfectly honest, it’s not making me nostalgic for my prom at all, just for my prom dress. Why? Quite simply because my prom dress was SUPER SUPER AWESOME. I suspect that there will never be a moment in my life when I look back on that dress and ask, “What was I thinking?”
Without further ado, here is the Selfish Seamstress at 16. (Okay, the Selfish Seamstress pretending to be herself at 16.)
I know, right?? (Incidentally, for any readers who may actually be going to prom and looking for ideas, I do NOT condone the wearing of an ecru dress with silver evening sandals. It just happens that at the moment all I have in my evening shoe wardrobe is silver or black and I needed something for the photos. Find a pair of white satin slingbacks or d’orsay heels, brew a cup of very strong tea, and paint the tea on until you have the perfect vintage ecru shade.)
So about this dress. I’m going to guess it’s from the mid- to late-1950’s. Ecru organza (why is it so hard to find lovely, matte, finely woven organza these days? Why does organza often look so cheap and shiny and Halloween costume-y now?) Variegated green embroidery, ruched bodice upper, two toned green bow with long, long tails. Underneath it has a built in netting crinoline and taffeta underskirt, under which I have slipped two additional crinolines, and under which I’m sure as a sixteen-year old, I stuffed many many more. (To be honest, I would have done so today, if my vast petticoat collection were more easily accessible. And while we’re being honest, I should mention that I probably have about two dozen more magnificent, massive 1950s prom dresses in my closet which is more cotton candy clothing than any adult woman in her right mind should have.)
I didn’t buy the dress for prom, but simply because I adored it on sight. And of course once the prom came around a year or two later, there was no question that I was going to wear it. I bought it sometime in the early 90s, probably just a couple of years before the cool kids were shopping for “vintage,” and this stuff would have just been called “used.” I say that not to brag about having been ahead of the trend (because I was not one of the cool kids by any stretch) but to point out that holy jeebus, it was CHEAP. Nobody wanted this stuff back then. I remember getting it from a Goodwill store in Lancaster, PA while I was at summer school (nerd alert!) and it cost $9.50. It was hanging on a wall with a whole lot of other gorgeous frothy 1950s concoctions and I didn’t have enough money on me at the time so I had to borrow a few dollars from my friend Margo. (It’s a good thing I didn’t have, say, $40 on me or I’m sure I’d have bought the whole lot of gowns.) For my younger readers, no, $9.50 wasn’t “a lot of money back in those days.” It was still doodlysquat for a dress. I brought it home and my mother exclaimed, “Eeee!” (That’s the sound she makes when she’s unpleasantly shocked), “Eeee! Why did you bring home that old dress??” She promptly took it to the dry cleaners for me and then chastized me as it cost $13 to get it cleaned. Still, not bad for $22.50, right? I bought a length of ecru chiffon, hemmed the edges and wore it as a wrap. Here are some details of the embroidery and the magnificent, magnificent bow:
There’s also a fairytale prom ending for my fairytale prom dress. As mentioned, I wore it to the prom as a high school junior a year or so after buying it. (My prom dress senior year was also a 1950’s delight- a crazy meringue of deep salmon lace and black netting tiers, but my ecru and green will always be my favorite.) At the time in my school, the demure 80’s prom aesthetic of pink ruffly taffeta and flared skirts was out and everyone wanted a simple white, black, or red column dress. Girls wanted to look like grown-ups, not 16-year olds and they wanted evening dresses, not prom gowns. I showed up in my $9.50 dress like the crazy lady who walked in off the street. As it turned out, there were photographers there from the now-defunct YM magazine, taking pictures for their features on prom, and guess who ended up with her picture in TWO issues? Not one of the girls in the grown-up $300 black column dresses. Sort of like a John Hughes movie in which the nerdy outcast ends up on top, except that I didn’t get kissed by Andrew McCarthy.
I did buy issues of the magazine, but I suspect they are in a box in my parents’ garage so I can’t share them here. They were March 1994 and I think the 1993 special issue on prom? If you saved yours, have a look through it and you can see the Selfish Seamstress for real at 16. And maybe even her hot date.
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March 11, 2010 at 8:59 am
woolcat
The dress is gorgeous, and you got it for a steal, and you were in a magazine!
But what I really hate you for is that you can pull a dress out of your closet that you wore and 16 and it still fits you.
March 11, 2010 at 10:03 am
raquel
Ditto!
March 12, 2010 at 12:44 am
Kelly
I’m happy to see that someone noticed the true selfishness of that!
March 12, 2010 at 2:30 am
lin3arossa
That’s exactly what I thought!
March 26, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Clio
Despicable! It is absolutely despicable that you fit into your prom dress! (And what a beautiful dress it is!)
March 11, 2010 at 9:04 am
sj
ohh – pretty – more pictures of you and the closet load of cotton candy please!!
March 11, 2010 at 9:05 am
peter
OMG! I wore that dress to MY prom!!!
March 11, 2010 at 9:07 am
selfishseamstress
Phew. It’s a good thing we didn’t go to the same high school. That would have been soooo embarrassing. Anyway, I thought you had the purple version? BTW, you would have been gaga over my date.
March 11, 2010 at 9:13 am
amber
I’m really impressed you still have your prom dress and that it still looks so good on you. It’s definitely a confection, but it’s so pretty and girlie and flirty – love it. While for the most part, I enjoy that styles today are much more casual and comfortable, but man, there are some days when I wish running around in a full skirted dress (with the crinoline and stuff) was completely normal.
March 11, 2010 at 9:17 am
Amanda S.
Awesome story! Thanks for sharing.
March 11, 2010 at 9:29 am
The Cupcake Goddess
Sigh…..It’s so gorgeous! I love it! It’s the perfect style and that green and yellow bow is just over the top! I love everything about it and you totally deserve to be featured in a mag with that on! Fairytale…
March 11, 2010 at 9:32 am
Jenny
Woohoo! Lancaster, PA!! That’s where I’m from. Anyway, beautiful dress, and thanks for sharing. I bet your mom wasn’t so upset when she realize you’d actually wear it and there would be no pleading for a $300 dress.
March 11, 2010 at 9:32 am
Jan
What woolcat said. And Peter, you’re so bad! :-)
Love the dress … reminds me of some of my mom’s dance dresses from the ’50s, which I used to play dress-up in as a kid … something about twirling those full skirts and crinolines is just so much fun.
Some of my favorite dresses have come from thrift shops. No matter how ridiculous it seems to spend more on the dry cleaning than the clothing, it’s worth it. (Only way a designer label gets into my closet, LOL.)
I made my own prom dress, but it was the ’70s, so those pix are *never, never* going online!
March 11, 2010 at 9:37 am
Darci
Thanks for sharing, SS. That you can fit into the same dress after (I’m assuming) so many years is remarkable. I’d hate you if I didn’t like you so much. Thanks for sharing your gorgeous dress! More, please!
BTW: I caved and ordered the Jalie jeans pattern. Your rave reviews pushed me over the top. I’m taking jeans on. There. I said it. :)
March 11, 2010 at 9:38 am
AmyG
Truly magnificent – perfect….. and kudos to you that you fit into your prom dress.
So now I’m off to do my Wii Fit – you motivated me.
March 11, 2010 at 9:42 am
Whitney
That dress is Beautiful! That is a great find, I wish I had had the presence of mind to purchase some of the awesome stuff I saw when I was a thrift shopping teen.
March 11, 2010 at 9:44 am
Karin
Aaaah, ooouh, it’s so beautiful!
You looks like you’ve been cut right out of a 1950’s yearbook, or a little better. Btw, I love that length of dress, ankles are hot as the Victorians knew oh-so-well.
I actually wore vintage to my prom too, but our proms are at 18 and I didn’t have to buy it, I wore my grandmother’s 1940’s or early 1950’s white, floorlength silk dress with white + a tiiiiny bit of black embroidered roses.
I still love it too. And I still fit into it too (but I’ve had to reduce the chest-part a bit, such an insult!).
I think you secretly wish you HAD brought $40 or so with you to that shop… I know I would have… (wished for it, that is!).
March 11, 2010 at 9:47 am
Diane Drexel
I live in Lancaster, PA and you won’t find stuff like that here today! The few times I have gone there, it was just ghastly stuff!
Here’s my YM story:
My husband and I lived in France for a few years in the late 1990’s. My mother would send me English language magazines through the mail as a treat. I had to tell her not to buy YM magazine, which really puzzled her until I clued her in the YM stood for “Young Miss” and was geared to teens and tweens.
Love your blog. Your curmugeon humor really makes my day.
Signed,
Someday Nemesis
March 11, 2010 at 9:48 am
Marybeth
My junior prom was in 1985, and I wore a dress almost exactly like that. Everyone else was wearing ruffly pink taffeta floor-length dresses, and my tea-length vintage dress was definitely different! I don’t have it anymore, and it wouldn’t fit me anyway even if I did. But like you I can look at pictures of myself from that night and not cringe with embarrassment over what I wore – now if only I could say the same thing about my date!
March 11, 2010 at 10:07 am
Reethi
Ok, first you find amazing dresses for $9.50. Then, you still fit in them. Wow, I hate you. (I am joking; this is a great dress. But I do hate you a little for being able to fit into it.)
March 11, 2010 at 10:17 am
thelandofka
Just the fact that you can still wear what you wore at 16 is thoroughly impressive! It is a beautiful dress – love all that embroidery.
March 11, 2010 at 10:27 am
Sabine
Wow, the dress is gorgeous!!!
March 11, 2010 at 11:04 am
wan-nabe
this is my most favoritest post of yours EVER.
March 11, 2010 at 11:11 am
a peppermint penguin
Of course you can still fit into a dress from when you were 16, you appeared fully formed and awesome on arrival. I can’t picture you being all yucky and childish with all that messy growing up to do. Even if you were, you probably still wore fabulous clothes.
Stating the obvious – that is a gorgeous dress, fantastic story and soooo cool you got kudos for standing out from the crowd.
March 11, 2010 at 11:16 am
Heather
I had a sub to YM mag so I’m sure I saw your picture. That is so cool! I love the dress and wish I’d had the presence of mind to thrift back then. *sigh* We graduated the same year, too! Super cool!
March 11, 2010 at 11:42 am
Adelaide B
Totally jealous.
March 11, 2010 at 12:15 pm
StefM
I love your dress and I would really love to see some more of you vintage treasures.
March 11, 2010 at 12:22 pm
D
I will not join the band wagon of jealousy over the fact that you still fit into the same dress that you wore when you were sixteen.
Instead, I’ll remind myself that everyone has issues with their bodies for SOME reason, and while some of us bemoan the fact that we grew hips and asses and chests, others of us mourn the fact that we didn’t.
That being said, I remember a couple of frothy net and sequin concoctions that my grandmother found at goodwill and gave to my sisters and I to play dress-up with when we were youngish. they were far from our size, and had boning in the bust that I’m not ANY of us filled out at the time.
I was utterly CRUSHED when formal party dress time came around and my mother and pitched them years prior…
So instead I made her buy me some black ruffled miniskirted sweethearted foulness and wore it with lace tights and satin opera gloves, and I went to my Jr High formal dance at age 15 looking like a cheap whore instead of demure debutante.
:)
March 11, 2010 at 12:24 pm
sigrid
Crazy feminine, and so nicely made. Reminds me of my wedding gown: 1950s, gorgeous ecru silk, beaded and pleated bodice with eight-gored skirt. I bought it in the late 1980s when everyone still wanted to look like a puffed-up lady Di for 40.00!
March 11, 2010 at 12:59 pm
Angela
Beautiful dress!! I wish I could still fit into my prom dress… :)
March 11, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Kara
See, this is such a beautiful dress and could be used for so many different things.
March 11, 2010 at 1:37 pm
Trudy callan
Gorgeous. So nice that it still fits.
March 11, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Victoria Baylor
Lovely dress and great story! What’s even better is you can still fit in your prom gown:) Good deal with scoring pics in the YM Mag (you took me back on that one, I used to love that magazine).
March 11, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Kelli
You are AWESOME! First, for the fabulous dress, and second, because it still fits! I only wish I could fit into my old ones, even though some of them are just AWFUL. My hair, I’m sure, would be more of an embarassment than my dress (I’m a late 80’s grad). Helmet hair, anyone?
March 11, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Ellen
If I had worn that dress there would be no regrets at all. None.Whatsoever. Sadly, my dress was definitely a “what was I thinking” kind of thing. My mom made it, but that wasn’t why it was so bad! I do still have it, but it’s not going on THIS body anytime soon.
Think late 70s, pale lemon yellow jersey. Now, quick, look at your pictures to erase that horrid thought from you mind!
March 11, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Kerry
Well, since Ms. Selfish and I are the same age, I am quite certain I had those two issues of YM (but honestly, YM was not my magazine of choice. “Sassy” was my favorite).
I had my fair share of second hand shop dresses (I grew up with relatively poor parents – it’s character building). For our Winter Carnival ball during senior year I went with a ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ theme, complete with little black velvet sheath dress, pearl choker, opera gloves and hair artfully piled on top of my head. That would have been February of ’94, and everyone else had the column dresses (with the choker neckline and cut away bare shoulders). I was the weirdo who went with the retro 60s look and opted for an updo when everyone else was having their spiral perms arranged into a Barbie-esque wave. I no longer have the sheath dress but I do still have my senior prom dress and I do still fit into it. I think a photo shoot is in order.
Oh, and last summer I was bequeathed a large collection of vintage clothes from the late 60s and early 70s from a friend who was apparently a size 0 when she was in college. Seriously – these dresses all appear to fit a 23″ waist. There is one gorgeous embroidered chiffon dress in the lot that is simply to die for, but I cannot zip it up.
March 11, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Nancy
What a wonderful find! I am so sad that YM magazine called it quits! I used to absorb every word out of every issue. I knew everything there was to know about fighting acne and teenage PMS.
I too, am envious you still can wear your prom dress!
March 11, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Laura
Very pretty! I’m a few years younger than you, Selfish. :) I didn’t go to prom, but they had a rose ball where I lived that all the girls ‘came out’ at 14. It was that you could then officially go to all the area dances which were 14 and up. While all the girls where dressed as you mentioned–trying to look 30 at 14, my mom made my dress. I still have that dress somewhere, and while it’s not like your lovely 50s concoction, it was pretty…. and I looked 14. My mom got many, many compliments on it and how I looked exactly what I was–a pretty 14-year-old girl!
March 11, 2010 at 7:03 pm
Deb
Wow. My prom was 1986. I wore an authentic 1980s peach frothy dress, just below knee length. It had tiers gathered up with peach fabric roses, to show off the beige fabric layer underneath. It was strapless and I was shy, about showing skin so I had a seamstress make a little matching shrug. We shortened the dress from floor-length and used the extra fabric for the shrug. That all sounds very average 1980s, except I asked a guy in his mid-20s to the prom!!!! I can’t believe my parents let me go with him. I can’t believe the GUY went! What was I thinking!! What was he thinking! He had his age 20-something friends meet in the hotel bar and he kept disappearing to drink with them. That’s probably how he got through the prom ordeal. They were probably laughing at me all night and I never realized it, until JUST NOW actually! I never talked to him again after we got dropped off at my friend’s house by midnight as required by parents knowing their girls were out with guys that age. And ooooooooh … Andrew McCarthy for a prom date … swoon … Yes I am an 80s kid, know all the John Hughes movies … but to this day I cannot even look at the words “Jessica McClintock” without thinking “prom dress” and getting visions of Seventeen magazine advertisements of dresses that all looked like over-decorated cupcakes.
March 11, 2010 at 7:45 pm
lorrwill
Am I the only one who is getting a wonderfully elegant Audrey Hepburn vibe from this?
just.too.pretty.
March 11, 2010 at 9:23 pm
Nicole
I wore a vintage dress to my prom bought at Salvie’s (Salvation Army). My dad assured me that we had enough money to buy a new dress the day I brought the vintage dress home. I still laugh at that story.
March 12, 2010 at 9:37 am
melissa
Gorgeous gorgeous dress! I’m about 90% sure I can still fit into my prom dress, too (not because I’m thin now, but because I was chunky then, ha!). Mine was in 1997 so totally in that “we want to be grown up” phase but mine is the most gorgeous pale gold satin with an overlay bodice and straight skirt, and a very simple line of diamante under the bust.
If it wasn’t in my parents’ closet several thousand miles away, I”d SO put it on and post about it just to spite you! ha!
Oh, and thanks for reminding me about tea-dying. I’m refashion my grandmother’s 1949 wedding gown into my own gown for September and it’s the most gorgeous antique champagne colour which will be nearly impossible to colour match on its own. But not for shoes – I’m doing bright fun shoes!
March 12, 2010 at 9:38 am
melissa
ha, I found a photo of me in the dress from 1997. Email me and I’ll totally dish!
March 12, 2010 at 11:02 am
Tenshi
That dress is incredibly beautiful.
I still fit in my dress, too, or rather skirt blouse. I still like the skirt (black velvet, slightest hint of mermaid style) and have worn it a lot of times since then, but the blouse in pale goldish silk dupioni was not the best choice for my color complexion, though, seeing how I’m blonde and look like a ghost even in the midst of summer.
March 12, 2010 at 12:01 pm
emory
You are so clearly a selfish ***** if you dare to post pictures of yourself at age X (I am a nice person and won’t say it, but I can do the math!) still fitting into the dress you wore at 16. Grrrr. And showing how awesomely beautiful your dress was… I suppose I’ll just have to lose 40 lbs now, so that I can one up you and post pictures of myself looking awesome in my beautiful prom dress. Take that! Yeah! Just wait… because you will indeed have to wait…
In all seriousness, that dress is gorgeous. @#$%&!
March 12, 2010 at 1:34 pm
vicki
The dress and you look beautiful. Thanks for sharing. And I am pleased to say IF I had a prom dress, I would STILL fit into it. But alas, no proms for Aussies back in the ,70’s – which is probably a good think when you think of that decade :)
March 15, 2010 at 2:42 am
senaSews
OMG, that dress is to die for. You look adorable. Sadly, when i went to school (here in Germany) we didn’t had this whole Prom thing. I wish we had. Love that dress!
March 26, 2010 at 8:34 am
The designer I want to be… today « The Selfish Seamstress
[…] regular, as you are all special and magnificent!) are probably already aware of my obsession with vintage gowns and vintage gown patterns, namely those from the mid- to late-1950s. Of course, my occasions for […]
April 10, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Monique
Wow! You look like a little princess! Beautiful!
July 30, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Jo @ To a Pretty LIfe
What a gorgeous dress! And thanks for the tip about tea-staining satin shoes! I’ve been wondering (for the past 8 years) what to do with my wedding shoes. I still love them, but what would I ever wear white satin shoes with? As soon as my daughter wakes from her nap, they are getting tea-stained! (because they are in her closet.)