A Vintage 1920s Marshall Field & Co Wedding Dress

As mentioned in my last post, I recently went to an estate sale which had beautiful antique clothing from the owner’s family. Unfortunately, I neglected to ask the family’s name, or the wedding date, but I got a few quick snapshots of this beautiful wedding dress and portrait.

The family was originally from Chicago and the dress was from Marshall Field & Co. I was lucky to be able to go to Marshall Field with my friend, Vanessa, when I visited her in Chicago before it became Macy’s. The building it is in is absolutely gorgeous. The dress must have been very high end when new.

I was unable to adopt it (it was $250 and in quite frail condition), but I took photos so I could remember it.

The dress next to the original owner’s portrait

Detailing of the bodice. It was a lovely silk chiffon with machine embroidery and pearl beads over a silk base.

It retained the 1910s style construction which continued throughout at least the first half of the 1920s. I don’t know when the wedding took place, but I would guess 1921-1924-ish? You can see how the bodice laps over and snaps here. There are also tiny little handmade thread loops for the hooks to attach to the net at the upper bodice.

The inside has the foundation lining (that which supports the dress shape) with boning, wide seams with shaped seam allowances at the waist that help it not to pucker and overcast raw edges. You can see the larger basting threads that held the outer dress design to the fitted foundation lining. The top edge of the foundation lining is edged in a lace beading through which is run a ribbon.

Me peeking inside was rewarded by seeing the inner waistband with the real Marshall Field and Company Chicago label. How exciting! No other designer label was present.

I made sure to take the plastic hanger off of the dress, and nicely prop the dress up on the pillow, since the shoulders were already quite frail. It was already laying there so didn’t need a hanger. That was my vintage good deed of the day.

Here’s a photo of the original owner in the dress with a studio portrait. The name of the photographer is Mabel Sykes, Chicago. I’ve *just now* found out that this photographer was rather famous, and Rudolph Valentino’s favorite! Check out this blog post for more information. According the post, Mabel Sykes studio was right across the street from Marshall Field’s!

The dress still retained the long, squared off train, and it was weighted at the ends with dress weights. I didn’t remember to take a photograph of that, though! The dress wasn’t really in wearable condition, but it certainly was beautiful.

It’s really exciting to see older dresses in the wild, since this area wasn’t very built up at all before WWII. A higher end Chicago wedding dress from the 1920s is a rarity around here, indeed! I hope it found a loving home by the end of the sale.