I bought a beautiful floral vintage inspired dress last week and I wanted to alter the shape of the neckline. I remembered a clever little vintage invention which seems to have gone out of fashion these days; the dress clip.
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Art deco 'Duette' £47 BraceletstoBuckles. Etsy.com |
The Dress clip was used to hold back gathers of fabric or to add interest and detail to a dress. They were usually sold in pairs and many, when fastened together, formed a brooch (Duette). Clever huh?!
I wanted to achieve this effect with my floral dress so I came up with a few inspired ideas.
The dress is what I would call an Audrey style and can be worn slightly off the shoulder. I was trying to get from this (above) to more of a sweetheart neckline. I tried some clip on earrings in one of my local vintage shops but they didn't have a long enough back and promptly fell off (which is why authentic dress clips had little grippers on the back), so in leiu of real dress clips I tried a brooch or two...
TaDa!
The brooch proved a really good idea as I could hold all of the spare fabric tightly together. The only problem was that I don't have two brooches the same so I tried a different one on the other side.
This worked well visually, but the size of the brooch meant it kept poking me under the arm! I really need to find some proper dress clips, but it's a start!
It always amazes me how many clever and beautiful things things from yesteryear have got lost over time. I love being able to bring them back. Here's some vintage inspiration for you and a few rather glamorous and gorgeous dress clips I've spied recently on Etsy.
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Wallis Simpson in dress clips (source) |
Makes you wonder what else our fashion paced, fast fashion modern world has forgotten about? Have a great Wednesday folks!
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