{"title":"Womenswear","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"midsummer-field-solo-1970s-mixed-floral-maxi","title":"Midsummer Field · Solo 1970s Mixed Floral Cotton Maxi","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ecotton voile · mixed botanical and ditsy floral prints · keyhole collar · 3\/4 balloon sleeves · sash tie · tiered maxi skirt · Solo · 1970s · L 114cm flat · AU 10–12 · Very good\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo prints walk into the same dress and the conversation works completely. The body is cream cotton voile, printed with large botanical bouquets, the flowers generous and unprecious, the kind of print that looks best against light or outdoors. The yoke and collar, the cuffs, the waistband: a smaller ditsy in the same warm palette, more contained in scale, that holds the silhouette together from throat to hem. A self-fabric keyhole tie fastens at the collar. Three-quarter balloon sleeves gather to a fitted cuff. A self-fabric sash ties at the back waist. The skirt is tiered and moves freely.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe two-print dress was a considered decision in early 1970s Australian domestic fashion. It required a confident hand to make the pairing cohere rather than conflict. \u003cem\u003eSolo\u003c\/em\u003e was an Australian label working in the romantic-peasant idiom, producing pieces for women who wore colour and movement without apology.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default","offer_id":44143277408390,"sku":null,"price":135.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3061.jpg?v=1783498434"},{"product_id":"the-chocolate-hours-carol-horn-1970s-plush-coat","title":"Cappucine · Carol Horn 1970s Plush Fur Coat","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePlush pile · chocolate and amber two-tone · turned-back cuffs · red satin lining · single hook closure · Faux Fur · Carol Horn - Captivity \/ Saks Fifth Avenue · 1970s · AU 10 · L 77cm flat · Very good\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis coat does not enter a room quietly. The pile is dense and plush, a chocolate-brown that shifts toward amber at the turned-back cuffs where the nap catches light differently, two tones of the same warmth layered over each other. The silhouette is boxy and squared at the shoulder, the kind of geometry that looks deliberate against a long skirt or over wide trousers. A single hook holds the open front. Inside: red satin, vivid and precise, the lining colour chosen to be found.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCarol Horn\u003c\/em\u003e established her label in the mid-1970s as a designer for professional women who wanted clothing with genuine intention. The\u003cem\u003e Captivity\u003c\/em\u003e line, stocked at \u003cem\u003eSaks Fifth Avenue\u003c\/em\u003e among other prestige retailers, brought that vision to outerwear. A coat like this was not a seasonal purchase. It was a decision.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe plush is deep and full, with no matting or bald patches across the surface. The red satin lining is clean and bright. The hook closure operates well.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default","offer_id":44143282651270,"sku":null,"price":285.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3045.jpg?v=1783498156"},{"product_id":"the-bertha-1970s-handmade-blush-all-lace-occasion-dress","title":"The Bertha · 1970s Handmade Blush All-Lace Occasion Dress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRose-floral lace · blush peachy-pink · satin lining · scalloped choker collar · wide bertha ruffle, 18cm · puff sleeves · fitted bodice · tiered skirt · handmade · 1970s to early 1980s · L 134cm flat · AU 10–12 · Very good\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery part of this dress is lace. Not appliqued over another fabric, not lace trim on a base cloth, but all-over rose-floral lace in a warm blush with the satin lining doing the structural work beneath. The construction is theatrical and precise. A high choker collar in scalloped lace hooks at the back of the neck. Below it, a wide bertha-style ruffle frames the V. The sleeves are full puffed, the cuffs scalloped. The bodice is fitted and darted. The skirt gathers into tiers at the waist, the hem finished with horizontal tuck rows.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis silhouette sits at the hinge between the 1970s romantic revival and the early 1980s occasion dress moment: the choker collar and bertha are pure 1970s, the volume of the puff sleeves and tiered hem belong to the early 1980s formal. The piece was made by hand, which accounts for the careful calibration of each section against the others.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default","offer_id":44143286747270,"sku":null,"price":155.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3085.jpg?v=1783497913"},{"product_id":"the-prowl-stitches-1990s-leopard-longline-coat","title":"The Prowl · Stitches 1990s Leopard Longline Coat","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePolyester · leopard print · disc buttons · princess seaming · longline A-line · charcoal satin lining · Stitches Australian Design · 1990s · AU 12 · buttoned flat L 92cm · Very good\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA camel ground printed with black leopard spots, longline, collar-pointed, with black ribbed disc buttons the size of a small coin. It is the 1990s take on the animal print coat: not apologising for itself, but considered in the execution. The princess seaming gives shape without tightness. The A-line swing of the skirt below the waist lets you walk properly. The charcoal satin lining does its job and stays quiet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe leopard print coat has appeared in every decade since the 1950s, each generation reinventing its own version of the category. The 1990s iteration, typified by sharp construction and clean minimal tailoring, was democratised well beyond the prestige houses into labels like \u003cem\u003eStitches\u003c\/em\u003e, which produced Australian-designed pieces for women who wanted the look without the price.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default","offer_id":44143289401478,"sku":null,"price":115.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3107.jpg?v=1783497678"},{"product_id":"close-fit-pto-1990s-black-fitted-jacket-au-12","title":"Close Fit · PTO 1990s Black Fitted Jacket with MOP buttons, AU 12","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePolyester crepe · black · pointed shirt collar · 4 mother-of-pearl disc buttons · princess seaming · shoulder padding · hip length · pto · Made in Australia · 1990s · AU 12 · flat L 59cm · Very good\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe collar is a pointed shirt collar, not lapels: a deliberate choice that sits closer to the chest and keeps everything tidy. Four large mother-of-pearl disc buttons close the front, round and cream against the deep black crepe. The seaming is princess: a clean vertical line from shoulder to hem that holds the silhouette without excess fabric between you and it. Padded at the shoulders, as the decade insisted, which is what gives that strong clean line. Hip length. Lined.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe tailored black jacket is among the most persistent garments in 20th-century fashion, reappearing every few years in a different guise. The \u003cem\u003ePTO\u003c\/em\u003e version is 1990s in its precision: a strong shoulder line, a fitted body, nothing decorative except the quality of the buttons. Made in Australia. The label is small and clean, lowercase script, which was its own kind of statement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe crepe is in good order, the black holding without greening. The mother-of-pearl buttons are intact.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default","offer_id":44143314468998,"sku":null,"price":88.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3120_1.jpg?v=1783497459"},{"product_id":"after-hours-su-1990s-black-dropped-waist-jersey-dress","title":"After Hours · sü 1990s Black Dropped-Waist Jersey Dress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStretch jersey bodice · fluid skirt panel · wide scoop neck · broad U-back · long sleeves · dropped waist · midi length · sü · 1990s · L 118cm flat, stretchy · AU 8–12 · Very good\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe bodice is black stretch merino wool jersey with a wide scoop neckline, the sleeves long and easy. Below the dropped waist seam, fold asymmetrically with a hidden slit in the folds. The hem falls at midi length. There is nothing superfluous here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dropped-waist silhouette recurred in the 1990s as an angular contrast to the body-conscious dressing happening in parallel. Where lycra clung, the dropped waist descended and flared, returning the emphasis to hem rather than hip. \u003cem\u003esü\u003c\/em\u003e was a label that understood this register: understated, well-cut, working in black.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe wool jersey is clean and smooth. The skirt panel holds its drape without clinging. The seam between bodice and skirt is secure.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default","offer_id":44143315976326,"sku":null,"price":78.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3130.jpg?v=1783496602"},{"product_id":"blue-hour-1960s-handmade-iridescent-jacquard-swing-coat","title":"Blue Hour · 1960s Handmade Iridescent Jacquard Swing Coat","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eIridescent midnight blue and dark blue satin-weave jacquard · tone-on-tone botanical pattern · draped mandarin collar · satin knotted rosette buttons · 3\/4 sleeves with cuff vent · A-line swing · navy satin lining · interior pocket · handmade · 1960s · L 97cm flat · fits AU 10–16 · Very good\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe fabric shifts between midnight blue and deep black depending on where the light arrives. The pattern beneath it is botanical, a large-scale tone-on-tone jacquard of rose leaves and stems woven directly into the satin weave, visible only when the surface moves or the angle changes. The collar is a mandarin form that drapes loosely rather than standing, settling into a soft fold at the throat. Three satin knotted rosette buttons on the centre front. Three-quarter sleeves with a vent slit at the cuff. The silhouette is an A-line swing, knee-length, the shape clean and wide. The lining is deep navy satin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe swing coat was the defining outerwear silhouette of the mid-1960s, a reaction against the structured fitted coats of the previous decade and a precursor to the geometric shapes that would follow. A handmade version of this form required considerable skill: the swing seams carry tension at the hem that must be handled at the construction stage or the coat will pull. This piece is well made.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default","offer_id":44143316861062,"sku":null,"price":225.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3139.jpg?v=1783496259"},{"product_id":"flower-market-zokky-melbourne-black-satin-wrap-blouse","title":"Flower Market · Zokky Melbourne Black Satin Wrap Blouse","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSatin-weave multi-fibre blend · bold painted floral print · deep V wrap front · 3\/4 sleeves · 2 mother-of-pearl buttons · curved hem · Zokky Melbourne · late 1980s to early 1990s · L 59cm flat · AU 10–12 · Very good\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe print is bold and loose, large poppies and flowers in vermillion, orange, and teal on a deep black satin ground, the brushstroke-style painting of each bloom occupying serious real estate across the fabric. The front wraps and crosses at a deep V, secured with two mother-of-pearl disc buttons. The sleeves are three-quarter, easy at the wrist. The back has a centre seam. The hem curves slightly at the front. In black satin, in this print, this is a blouse that does the work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eZokky\u003c\/em\u003e was a Melbourne label producing pieces for women who liked their clothing with some clarity of intent. This blouse sits in the late 1980s to early 1990s, when Australian fashion was absorbing the decade's last bold moves before paring back.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default","offer_id":44143318433926,"sku":null,"price":95.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3152.jpg?v=1783495968"},{"product_id":"soft-architecture-rago-of-new-york-1970s-longline-bra","title":"Soft Architecture · Rago of New York 1970s Longline Bra","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e70% nylon, 30% spandex · rose-patterned lace cups · boned panel construction · triple hook-and-eye back · wide elastic waistband · adjustable straps · Rago of New York,  Style 2202 · Made in USA · 1970s to 1980s · 36-B, stretches considerably · measured flat L 42 · B 43 · W 35 · Excellent condition\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a piece of architecture worn close to the body. The cups are shaped in rose-patterned lace, and soft wired for support. The body descends in alternating panels of floral lace and firm mesh, boned through the torso, the kind of construction that creates shape beneath a dress rather than waiting for the dress to do it. The back closes with three parallel columns of hooks. The bottom edge is a wide satin-elastic band finished in scalloped lace trim. Adjustable straps.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eRago of New York \u003c\/em\u003ehas been making foundations since 1944. \u003cem\u003eStyle 2202\u003c\/em\u003e is one of their longline bra styles, constructed to provide support and a smooth silhouette from cup to waist. The vintage versions, in grey-mauve nylon and spandex with lace cups, have a different character to the contemporary equivalents: less seamless, more considered in their structure.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default","offer_id":44143319679110,"sku":null,"price":95.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3162.jpg?v=1783495396"},{"product_id":"villa-on-the-hill-1970s-handmade-palladian-maxi-dress","title":"Villa on the Hill · 1970s Handmade Palladian Maxi Dress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLightweight woven fabric · scenic novelty print · Palladian buildings and topiary on sage green · self-covered dome buttons in matching print · V-neckline · long blouson sleeves · button cuffs · full A-line maxi skirt · green zip back · handmade · 1970s · L 140cm flat · AU 10–12 · Very good\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery few centimetres another neoclassical building appears, seated on a low hill surrounded by rounded topiary trees in vivid green and golden amber, the landscape undulating in soft horizontal waves across the fabric. The print is a scenic novelty in the 1970s mode, detailed enough to read differently at arm's length versus up close, the buildings Palladian in their domes and colonnades. On a sage-green ground. In a full maxi. With self-covered dome buttons in the same print running from the V-neckline to the waist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eScenic and architectural prints in fabric reached a particular peak in the early 1970s, when designers and textile houses on both sides of the Atlantic worked through a nostalgia for formal European landscape. This dress sits firmly in that tradition. It was made by hand, with careful attention to pattern matching at the seams and a considered approach to button placement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe fabric is clean and has not faded. The dome buttons are all intact. The zipper at the centre back is green and functions correctly.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default","offer_id":44143321251974,"sku":null,"price":185.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3179.jpg?v=1783494920"},{"product_id":"evensong-1980s-ink-blue-ruffle-collar-puff-sleeve-dress","title":"Evensong · L.T.D. by Roberta 1980s Black Ruffle Collar Puff Sleeve Dress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eL.T.D. by Roberta, U.S.A. · black smooth-faced synthetic with a soft lustre · standing ruffle collar · gathered puff sleeves, 37cm at full puff · full sweeping skirt · 1980s occasion dressing · L 109cm flat · AU 10–12 · very good condition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBlack, but never flat. The fabric is a smooth-faced synthetic with a soft lustre, so every gather takes the light differently and the dress reads in a dozen depths of dark. Around the scooped neckline runs a standing ruffle, gathered tight so it frames the collarbone the way a ruff frames a portrait sitter. The sleeves arrive full and gathered, holding their own air, and below the bodice the skirt simply lets go: yards of it, falling straight into movement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe label reads \u003cem\u003eL.T.D. by Roberta\u003c\/em\u003e, an American occasion-dress house of the late 1970s and 80s whose work now circulates among vintage dealers precisely because it did occasion so well. Roberta dressed the parties of that decade: the proms, the dinners, the nights that required a dress that could hold a room. The 1980s spent a great deal of energy remembering other centuries, and this dress belongs to that current, the decade's romance with the Victorian translated into the fabrics the decade did best. Synthetics get little credit, but they are why a dress like this survives: the colour has not faded, the gathers have not collapsed, and it will pour out of a suitcase ready to be worn. Look at the neckline gathering; a ruffle this disciplined took patience at the machine.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44149777203334,"sku":null,"price":135.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3199.jpg?v=1783581869"},{"product_id":"the-white-hours-antique-cotton-lawn-nightgown-with-hemstitching","title":"The White Hours · Antique 1910s Monogrammed White Cotton Nightgown","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSturdy white cotton · crosshatch weave against the light · pale blue padded-satin monogram · crossed-band neckline with drawn-thread openwork · hand hemstitching · antique trousseau piece · 1910s–1920s · L 111cm flat · fits AU 10–14 · very good condition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the chest, in pale blue, someone's initials: a hand-worked monogram crowned with a little spray of flowers. The letters are raised in padded satin stitch, each one first outlined and filled to lift it from the ground, a method borrowed straight from the trousseau linens of the period, where a woman's initials were the mark that a thing was hers and had been made ready for her. The neckline answers it: two hand-finished bands cross at the V and fall into points, edged with drawn-thread openwork, a small formality on a garment meant only for sleep.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDrawn-thread work is exactly what it sounds like: threads are counted and withdrawn from the weave, and the ones that remain are gathered and knotted into open, latticed borders with a hemstitch, so the decoration is subtracted from the cloth rather than added to it. Hold the gown to the window and the ground weave declares itself too, a fine even crosshatch of warp and weft with the light caught in the grid of it. This is not a wisp of boudoir cotton but honest cloth with the body of good household linen, the kind chosen for a trousseau in the 1910s or 1920s, when a bride's linens were sewn, monogrammed and counted before they were ever slept in. It was bought to be worn nightly, boiled on washday, wrung, line-dried and worn again for years, and that thrift and good judgement is precisely why the gown is still here, sturdy long past its century.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44149778186374,"sku":null,"price":210.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3214.jpg?v=1783581952"},{"product_id":"signora-carla-zampatti-1980s-navy-jersey-dolman-dress","title":"Signora · Carla Zampatti 1980s Black Jersey Dolman Dress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBlack polyester jersey · dense weighty drape · dolman sleeves cut in one · centre back seam · carla zampatti sydney label · 1980s · Australian fashion house est. 1965 · L 108cm flat · AU 12–16 · very good condition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe sleeves are cut in one with the body, a dolman line that falls from the shoulder in a single unbroken sweep and narrows at the wrist, so the whole dress moves like one gesture. Black polyester jersey with a dense, weighty drape, a centre seam running the back like a plumb line, and almost nothing else. That restraint is the signature.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe label reads \u003cem\u003ecarla zampatti sydney\u003c\/em\u003e, in the lowercase script of her earlier decades. Zampatti arrived in Australia from Italy as a child, produced her first small collection in 1965, and spent the next half-century dressing Australian women who had places to be, prime ministers and premiers among them. Her stated method was ease: clean zips instead of fussy openings, lines that kept their composure at a boardroom table or a long lunch. The fibre is part of that promise. A good polyester jersey shrugs off creases, holds its black through years of wear and washing, and lands on the body exactly the same way every single morning. Here is that philosophy in cloth, the 1980s power silhouette softened into something a body can actually live in.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44149780054150,"sku":null,"price":168.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3241.jpg?v=1783582153"},{"product_id":"pavilion-1950s-handmade-chinoiserie-brocade-dress","title":"Pavilion · 1950s Handmade Chinoiserie Brocade Dress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChinoiserie brocade · pagodas and blossom in persimmon and duck-egg · flutter sleeves · self tie belt · pale blue lining · lace-bound seams · handmade · 1950s · L 105cm flat · AU 14–16 · very good condition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLook closely and there are pagodas: tiny woven pavilions sitting among blossom in persimmon, duck-egg blue and gold, repeating across a champagne satin ground in soft horizontal drifts. The brocade does the talking. Flutter sleeves, a bateau neck, a slim self-fabric belt looped at the waist, a gathered skirt, and nothing to interrupt the cloth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a 1950s dress, and it wears the decade in every decision. Chinoiserie brocades like this poured into home dressmakers' hands through those years, when the fabric itself was the luxury and the pattern was cut to honour it. This one was made at home. Turn it inside out and the evidence is tender: seams bound in pink lace, rows of zigzag in red and blue where someone steadied a fraying edge, a pale blue lining chosen to glow through the ground. A dressmaker made these decisions for one particular body and one particular occasion. The occasion has passed; the dress remains, which is the whole reason this archive exists.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44149780840582,"sku":null,"price":185.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3252.jpg?v=1783582375"},{"product_id":"copperplate-1990s-baroque-engraving-print-crepe-shirt","title":"Copperplate · Mariko and Swan 1990s Baroque Engraving Print Rayon Shirt","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMariko and Swan, Australia · soft brushed black rayon · baroque engraving print in blush and rose · pointed collar · breast pocket · buttoned barrel cuffs · tagged a vintage 12, modern AU 10–12 · 1990s · L 71cm flat · very good condition · dry clean or careful cold hand-wash\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe print looks lifted from an engraver's folio: rosettes, acanthus scrolls and cabbage roses rendered in fine crosshatched lines, each motif floating on black like a plate torn from a baroque pattern book and scattered across the cloth in blush and dusty rose. A pointed collar, a breast pocket cut so the pattern keeps drifting across it, small black buttons down the placket and again at the barrel cuffs of the long sleeves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe is a 1990s shirt to her bones. The label reads \u003cem\u003eMariko and Swan\u003c\/em\u003e, in the hand-drawn lettering small Australian houses favoured, with the centimetre-based size tag of the era sewn beneath. The label has all but vanished from the record, which is its own kind of provenance. Australia in that decade was full of these small labels, cutting good rayon in city workrooms, selling through boutiques, keeping no archive. Their surviving pieces are the only documentation they left, and they are almost never seen twice. The decade loved this trick too, raiding the archive of European ornament and printing it oversized on fluid black cloth, equal parts library and nightclub. The cloth is rayon, soft and faintly brushed, with a fuzz you feel more than see. Rayon takes a print like this with more depth than silk would, drapes close, and softens further with every wear.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44149781823622,"sku":null,"price":95.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3271.jpg?v=1783582498"},{"product_id":"still-water-black-crepe-sleeveless-column-dress","title":"Still Water · Vogue Overseas 1960s Beaded-Hem Black Cocktail Dress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVogue Overseas, Adelaide · Estacel jet-spun acetate and rayon crepe · black bugle bead fringe hem · sleeveless cocktail sheath · tiered skirt · scooped neck · fully lined · metal zip with hook and eye · 1960s · L 106cm flat · AU 14 · good to very good condition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe keeps her one secret below the knee: the overskirt ends in a fringe of black bugle beads, a swinging line of glass running the full perimeter, catching the light at every step exactly the way a 1920s dancer's hem was built to. Forty years after the flappers, in a suburban Adelaide workroom, someone was still thinking about them. Above the glitter, restraint. A sleeveless sheath in matte black crepe, scooped at the neck, bound at the shoulders, shaped by seams alone, the beaded tier lying over a slim skirt beneath.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe is a 1960s dress, and two names inside her say so. The maker's label reads \u003cem\u003eVogue Overseas, Adelaide\u003c\/em\u003e, one of the small Australian ready-to-wear houses that dressed this country's cities through the 1950s and 60s, the years when ready-to-wear replaced the salon. Houses like this rarely made it into the archives, which is precisely why their surviving dresses matter; they are the record. The second label names the cloth: \u003cem\u003eEstacel, jet spun acetate fibre and rayon\u003c\/em\u003e, a registered fibre mark of the era, the same name found stitched into other Australian dresses of the decade. Fibre-brand tags were a mid-century badge of modernity. You were not just buying a black dress; you were buying the future by the yard, and jet-spun acetate was prized for exactly what this dress does: a deep, matte, light-swallowing black.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe construction agrees with both labels. Fully lined in slippery black, a metal-toothed zip with a hook and eye standing guard above it, a cocktail length proper to its decade.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44149783560326,"sku":null,"price":155.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3781.jpg?v=1784766643"},{"product_id":"night-letter-1990s-sheer-crinkle-georgette-duster-shirt","title":"Night Letter · Garage 1990s Sheer Crinkle Georgette Duster Shirt","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGarage label · sheer black viscose crinkle georgette · duster length, 124cm flat · pointed collar · carved-look buttons · side slits · permanent pleat texture · fits AU 10–16 · 1990s · very good condition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt weighs almost nothing and changes everything it is worn over. A full-length shirt cut from black georgette crinkled into fine permanent pleats: smoke given a collar and buttons. The collar is long and pointed, the buttons dark and carved-looking down the full length of the placket, and the side seams open into slits so the whole thing moves like a held breath. The label reads \u003cem\u003eGarage\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe is a 1990s piece through and through. That decade understood sheerness as layering rather than exposure, the long transparent shirt worn over a slip, over jeans, over a swimsuit in the right January. The crinkle is the practical genius here: pleated cloth that cannot wrinkle, packs into a fist, and falls back into its texture the moment it hangs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOver the black Outrage slip also in the archive this week, she becomes an entire evening.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44149784313990,"sku":null,"price":115.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3301.jpg?v=1783583467"},{"product_id":"cloud-study-handmade-shibori-silk-dress-with-velvet-sleeves","title":"Cloud Study · 1980s–90s Handmade Shibori Silk Dress with Velvet Sleeves","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHand-dyed shibori silk · indigo grid on storm-brown · black crushed velvet raglan sleeves · square neck · drop-waist pleated skirt · silver back zip · artisan handmade · 1980s–90s · L 111cm flat · AU 12–14 · very good condition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe dye tells you how it was made. Across the silk runs a grid of soft white blooms, each one a point where the cloth was folded and bound before it went into the indigo. This is shibori, the Japanese resist technique in which the fabric itself is tied into a pattern and then released. At the yoke the colour deepens into storm-brown, as if the weather is arriving from the shoulders down. The sleeves are cut from black crushed velvet, raglan, ending below the elbow. The neck is square, the skirt drops from a low waist into flat pleats, and a silver zip runs the spine.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy her make, she belongs to the 1980s or 90s, the decades when studio dyers and art-to-wear makers revived shibori in earnest and put it into dresses exactly like this one: hand-dyed cloth, a 1920s drop-waist line borrowed knowingly, velvet against silk. She carries no label, which is common for studio pieces sold at markets and galleries; the dye work is the signature. Every shibori cloth is unrepeatable by nature. The same folds and the same dye will never bloom into the same grid twice. One of one in the truest sense available to cloth.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44149785329798,"sku":null,"price":155.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3751_9994b8f6-c9e0-4675-985f-8e1ee32d84e6.jpg?v=1784766532"},{"product_id":"menagerie-tsumori-chisato-illustrated-knit-dress","title":"Picture Book · Tsumori Chisato 1990s Illustrated Wool Knit Dress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTsumori Chisato · 1990s, the label's first decade · hand-drawn print of birds and sea creatures · charcoal wool knit · metallic crochet neckline trim · silver thread seams · L 95cm flat · AU 10–14 · very good condition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpend a minute with the print and it keeps introducing new characters: birds, sea creatures, an octopus unfurling in orange, florals in teal and violet and gold, and the designer's own name hiding in the drawings like a signature worked into a mural. All of it hand-drawn in the loose, joyful line that belongs unmistakably to Tsumori Chisato, printed across a soft charcoal wool knit and finished at the neckline with a braid of black-and-silver metallic crochet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a 1990s piece, from the label's first and most collected decade. Chisato trained at Bunka in Tokyo and joined Issey Miyake's design company in 1977, rising to head the Issey Sport line before Miyake himself encouraged her to launch her own label in 1990. The illustrated prints of those early-label years, drawn by her own hand and dense with hidden creatures and lettering, are exactly what collectors hunt now. She became one of Japanese fashion's great storytellers, building collections like picture books, serious craft wearing a childlike grin. And she drew on wool here: a fine jersey with the gentle brushed surface wool takes on, warm without weight, with fine silver thread caught in the seams. Whimsy, rigorously made.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44149787033734,"sku":null,"price":215.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3771.jpg?v=1784766421"},{"product_id":"nocturne-black-liquid-satin-bias-slip-dress","title":"Nocturne · Outrage 1990s Black Liquid Satin Bias Slip Dress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOutrage, made in Australia · black liquid satin · polyester · deep V front and plunge back · pointed midriff seam · invisible zip · gathered bust · bias fall · evening length, 153cm flat · tagged a vintage 10, modern AU 8–10 · 1990s · very good condition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePoured, not sewn. That is the first impression. Black satin with a wet-look lustre, cut to a deep V and gathered gently beneath the bust so the fabric falls from that one point of tension into a long bias sweep. Wide-set straps, and a back that answers the front with a plunge of its own, diving to a pointed midriff seam where an invisible zip hides along the spine. That pointed seam is proper dressmaking: it lets the bodice gather softly above while the skirt falls dead straight below, and it turns the back of the dress into its best angle.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe is a 1990s dress. The label reads \u003cem\u003eOutrage, made in Australia\u003c\/em\u003e, one of the Australian labels of that decade that vintage dealers now trade on sight and historians never wrote down. Even the vintage forums come up empty-handed on \u003cem\u003eOutrage\u003c\/em\u003e, which tells you how these houses worked: city workrooms, boutique racks, no archive, all the documentation left hanging in wardrobes like this one. The dress itself is the record, and it records its decade precisely, the years the slip dress climbed out of the underwear drawer and into the evening. Born as lingerie in the 1930s when bias-cutting first made cloth cling, revived by the minimalists sixty years on, and never quite off duty since.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWorn alone she is an entire argument. Under the sheer Garage duster also new to the archive, a whole conversation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44149789229190,"sku":null,"price":115.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3765.jpg?v=1784766293"},{"product_id":"second-skin-valisere-by-triumph-international-1990s-black-lace-bustier","title":"Second Skin · Valisère by Triumph International 1990s Black Lace Bustier","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNylon and elastane · black floral lace over sheer mesh · boned structure with multi-row hook-and-eye back · Valisère by Triumph International · 1990s · 41cm length · tagged 14C, stretches generously · excellent condition\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePress a finger to the boning and it pushes back exactly as firmly as it did new, no give, no bend, doing the quiet structural work that the lace on top gets all the credit for.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoning wants to be felt before it is seen, cool then warm as it takes the shape of a ribcage, doing its work in private under a decoration that gets all the attention. Someone guided this lace over black mesh with real patience, close enough that from a distance the two read as a single fabric, structure and ornament sewn into the same breath. She is Valisère, a French name already old by the 1990s, made for Triumph International in a factory in Thailand that still bothered to hide good engineering under something this pretty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe floral lace sits over a black mesh panel down the centre back and front, so the structure beneath is visible through the pattern rather than hidden by it. She closes with a long row of hooks and eyes up the back seam, and the nylon-elastane blend gives real stretch, 66cm at rest, out to 83cm under tension, without asking the boning to compromise. Tagged a 14C, and by these measurements she runs true to that size.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44179755401350,"sku":null,"price":95.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3688.jpg?v=1784768194"},{"product_id":"held-line-playtex-1960s-white-lace-longline-bra","title":"Held Line · Playtex 1960s White Lace Longline Bra","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eCotton and lace · boned longline structure · fixed straps · cotton-lined · Playtex, style 239 · 1960s · 61cm total length, stretches to 75cm · tagged 12A \/ 85A · no staining, elastic unweakened\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnderneath the lace is a plain cotton lining, the layer nobody sees and the only one that ever touches skin, doing its quiet work while the outside gets to be beautiful.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNine narrow channels hold the boning in place, each one stitched by a machine guided by someone who had done this so many times the seams barely wander. The lace was cut to sit exactly over that cotton foundation, edge matched to edge, so the two layers move as one instead of shifting apart the way lace usually does against skin. The straps were sewn fixed rather than left to adjust, a small vote of confidence that the fit underneath had already been solved. Playtex called pieces like this one Style 239, made sometime in the 1960s, when a longline bra was still expected to do real architectural work under a fitted blouse.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe measures 61cm at rest and stretches to 75cm without strain, the elastic still doing exactly what it did decades ago. The straps are fixed rather than adjustable, set at 30cm front to back, and the cup and band read a tagged 12A, 85A. No staining anywhere, and the elastic has kept its memory rather than losing it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44179782008966,"sku":null,"price":65.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3704.jpg?v=1784770391"},{"product_id":"ringleader-merivale-hommes-1980s-90s-black-satin-lapel-swallowtail-jacket","title":"Ringleader · Merivale Hemmes 1980s Black Satin-Lapel Swallowtail Jacket","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eBlack cotton twill with satin lapel facing · double-breasted swallowtail cut · six covered buttons · Merivale Hemmes, Australia · 1980s · 56cm front length, 52cm back · tagged a vintage 10\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lapel does something the rest of her does not: it catches light. Satin laid flat against matte black cotton twill, peaked high near the shoulder, so the eye goes there first before it finds the row of covered buttons marching down to where the front splits into two long points.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhoever cut this jacket built her the way a proper tailcoat gets built: princess seams to shape the waist without a dart in sight, a back that splits into its own pair of points below the closure, sleeves set high enough into the shoulder that the whole thing holds its posture without help from the body inside it. The label reads Merivale Hemmes, carrying the family name straight through: John and Merivale Hemmes opened the House of Merivale in Sydney in the 1960s and dressed a generation before the family name moved on to restaurants and hotels. This one was made sometime in the 1980s, in the label's later years, when a woman in a swallowtail dinner jacket was making exactly the kind of statement a jacket like this was built for.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSix black covered buttons close double-breasted across the front, though she is clearly built to be worn open as much as closed, the deep 35cm drop at the collar leaving plenty of room for that choice. The back falls into two pointed tails below the waist, tailcoat construction rather than a decorative hem, and the sleeves finish with a single covered button at the cuff. She is unlined, which keeps her light for a piece with this much structure, with a dry clean only tag the one instruction stitched inside.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44179892174982,"sku":null,"price":185.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3808.jpg?v=1784775910"},{"product_id":"chalk-line-ellen-tracy-1990s-navy-pinstripe-mini-skirt","title":"Chalk Line · Ellen Tracy 1990s Ink Black Pinstripe Mini Skirt","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eInk black pinstripe polyester suiting · straight mini silhouette · front vent at hem · back zip · fully lined · Ellen Tracy · 1990s · 53cm long, 36cm waist flat · tagged a vintage 10\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery stripe on her runs the same distance from its neighbour, an obsessive kind of regularity that only shows up close, and at the hip the fabric softens just slightly, draped rather than seamed flat, before the whole thing snaps straight again down to a single vent at the hem, set right of centre rather than in the middle where a vent usually hides.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe stripe is woven in, not printed on, fine white against the darkest, inkiest black, a shade that edges toward blue without ever quite arriving, the way proper suiting has always done it. The whole skirt is built with a tailor's instinct for movement: draped ease at the hip rather than a stiff seam, and a vent at the lower hem placed slightly off centre so the leg has somewhere to go without the line ever looking accidental. Ellen Tracy built a career on precisely this kind of American workwear, tailored pieces meant to survive a decade of Mondays, and this one carries the label from the 1990s, when a pinstripe this fine on a hem this short was its own kind of office rebellion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe closes at centre back with a lapped zip alone, and the fabric is fully lined so the pinstripe never has to do the work of hiding anything underneath. The hem narrows slightly from hip to knee, 50cm at the hip easing to 48cm at the hem, a straight rather than pencil-tight cut that still reads sharp on the body.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44179901120646,"sku":null,"price":78.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3832.jpg?v=1784775963"},{"product_id":"night-garden-adele-palmer-silk-beaded-blazer","title":"Night Garden · Adele Palmer Raw Silk Beaded Blazer","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e100% slubbed silk · allover glass seed bead floral embroidery · shell buttons · shoulder pads · hem vent · Adele Palmer · 1980s · 83cm front length, 45cm waist flat · tagged a vintage 10\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery leaf on her is drawn in glass, hundreds of seed beads strung close enough together that the outline reads before the silk underneath ever gets a say. Tonal black on black, so the vine only declares itself when the light catches the curve of a stem.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe silk itself has a slub running through it, small irregularities in the thread that catch and hold a bead differently than a perfectly smooth weave would, which is part of why the embroidery reads as hand-guided rather than machine-neat. This one carries Adele Palmer's own name rather than JAG, the Melbourne denim label she founded on Chapel Street in 1972 and built into one of Australian fashion's genuine export successes, a rare local label that made it onto Steve McQueen and Bianca Jagger before it ever made it onto a department store rack. Structured shoulder pads hold the line at the top, the era's answer to a jacket that needed to be noticed from across a room.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe closes with heavy, pearlescent shell buttons, substantial enough to balance the weight of all that beadwork, and two flap pockets sit at the hip, embroidered to match rather than left plain. A single vent opens at the back hem for ease of movement, and the shoulders carry their own pads, giving the silhouette its structure independent of whoever is wearing her.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44179932840070,"sku":null,"price":215.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3882.jpg?v=1784789640"},{"product_id":"fault-line-empire-rose-1990s-2000s-technical-pin-tuck-top","title":"Fault Line · Empire Rose 1990s-2000s Technical Pin-Tuck Top","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eRayon, nylon and lycra blend · pin-tuck front pleating · hidden plastic popper placket · Empire Rose · 1990s-2000s · 64cm long, 52cm bust · tagged a vintage 14\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSix fine pin-tucks run the length of the front, pressed sharp enough to hold their own line even with stretch built into the cloth underneath, and right beside them a placket hides its closure entirely, poppers doing the work a row of buttons would normally get credit for.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe stretch comes from a rayon, nylon and lycra blend, technical rather than romantic, the kind of fabric built to hold a pleat and still move with a body. Empire Rose is a Western Australian label, founded in Perth in 1998 by designer Kathryn Cizeika, better known for technicolour retro prints and a mash-up of high glamour and street style; this piece is a rarer, quieter departure into black and precision.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe designer nicknamed this piece 'Prada', entirely unofficial, earned by the hidden closures and utility-minded restraint that put her closer to Prada's late 1990s and 2000s technical minimalism than to Empire Rose's usual colour. Nothing here is dressed up for the sake of it. Every seam is doing a job.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe placket closes with plastic poppers, hidden from view once fastened, and the whole front is built around that quiet mechanism rather than a visible row of buttons. The armhole runs 20cm and the neckline drops 11cm from the shoulder, both cut close and clean rather than loose.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44179958792326,"sku":null,"price":88.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3933.jpg?v=1784778865"},{"product_id":"five-hands-antique-edwardian-french-broderie-anglaise-corset-cover","title":"Five Hands · Antique Edwardian French Broderie Anglaise Corset Cover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eCotton with broderie anglaise eyelet and lace trim · five mismatched buttons · French seams throughout · Edwardian, French 1900s-1910s · 38cm strap to hem, 51cm bust buttoned · hand-restored\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo two buttons on her agree with each other. One is mother-of-pearl, one a small disc of ceramic, two are covered in cloth, and the last is carved with a fluted, spoke-like pattern nobody in the archive has managed to name yet. Five hands, or five decades of mending, closing the same five holes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery interior seam is French seamed, the raw edge folded in and stitched twice so nothing inside her was ever left to fray, the kind of finishing a hand takes real time over. The lace panel at the bust is broderie anglaise, eyelet cut and buttonholed into hearts and drop shapes, edged in a scalloped trim that does not quite match the lace at the underarm, a small honest sign that this piece was made larger at some point from what began as a smaller garment. She belongs to a lot gathered in France in the 1980s, sitting untouched for decades before I began the slow work of bringing pieces like her back myself: soaking, whitening and restoring by hand, one at a time, my own ongoing project. The corset cover herself is Edwardian, cut and stitched decades before that. She arrived grey with age and has since been restored, by me, back to the white she was always meant to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe closes centre front with those five mismatched buttons, and gathers at the underbust into a fitted cuff rather than falling loose. The straps run 11cm from shoulder to garment, wide enough to sit flat rather than dig in, and the shoulders themselves remain sturdy with no strain to the seams. A rust-toned stain sits on the underbust cuff, pictured plainly rather than hidden, the one mark age left behind that restoration could not lift.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44180015382662,"sku":null,"price":220.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3949.jpg?v=1784780657"},{"product_id":"long-shadow-conchon-quinette-antique-french-dress-shirt","title":"Long Shadow · Conchon-Quinette Antique French Dress Shirt","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eSelf-stripe cotton bib, collar and cuffs, basketweave natté body · bib front · mother-of-pearl button cuffs · Conchon-Quinette, France · 1900s-1910s · 84cm front length, 101cm back · sturdy, unisex cut\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEach cuff now closes with a mother-of-pearl button rather than a cufflink, the old cufflink holes stitched fully shut, Edwardian buttons pulled from my own collection rather than bought to match, so the repair reads as considered rather than convenient.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe cloth is actually two: a fine self-striped cotton on the bib, collar and cuffs, the parts meant to be seen, set against a plainer basketweave natté cotton across the body and sleeves, sturdy enough to survive a century of wear without thinning. The label reads \u003cem\u003eVetements Natte, Conchon Quinette\u003c\/em\u003e, the name of a real French ready-to-wear house headquartered in Clermont-Ferrand, with factories through Auvergne towns like Sainte-Florine and Brassac turning out clothing for men, women and children from catalogue order rather than bespoke fitting. This one is cut generously through the body in the era's typical unisex shirt shape, made sometime in the 1900s or 1910s. She belongs to a lot gathered in France in the 1980s, and restoring pieces from it by hand, one at a time, is a project of my own that I am still slowly working through. She arrived needing exactly that: a proper soak and whitening, both done by me.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe back drops dramatically longer than the front, 101cm against 84, a shirt-tail cut built for tucking rather than standing loose. A deep pleat runs down centre front, which is where the 66cm hem measurement gets its ease from rather than true width. Both side seams carry a visible repair where they meet the hem, small honest mends rather than hidden ones. The armholes are cut close at 21cm despite the generous body, which is why she wears best on a smaller modern frame even though the cut reads oversized: a good sleep shirt, or worn open over jeans.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44180035043462,"sku":null,"price":200.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3976.jpg?v=1784781236"},{"product_id":"black-rain-bella-j-1980s-suede-fringe-biker-jacket","title":"Black Rain · Bella J 1980s Suede Fringe Biker Jacket","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eSupple black suede with allover fringe · batwing sleeves · adjustable buckle waist · Bella J, Australia · 1980s · 59cm long, 58cm bust at batwing · tagged a vintage M\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the softest, thickest suede in the archive, the kind that moves like fabric rather than hide, and every inch of movement sets the fringe swinging a half second behind the body, black rain that never quite catches up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBella J Leather Fashion made this in Australia sometime in the 1980s, a label that has left little trace beyond the garments themselves, the way small leather houses often do. What she did leave is real craft: batwing sleeves cut deep and dramatic, structured shoulder pads built in but never obvious once worn, and a waist that adjusts two ways at once, back fitting zippers doing the close work and a wide buckle belt doing the visible work on top.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo pockets sit at the side waist, and up front there are two more, one decorative and one genuinely useful, easy to tell apart once you know which is which. The front zip runs 38cm down from a 15cm neck drop when fully closed, and the fringe falls 10.5cm at the sleeve edges, cut sharp and even. Every zipper still runs smooth, and the nap has been aired and brushed back to its original softness.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44180327432326,"sku":null,"price":285.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3992.jpg?v=1784789752"},{"product_id":"coal-seam-country-road-1980s-wide-wale-corduroy-skirt","title":"Coal Seam · Country Road 1980s Wide-Wale Corduroy Skirt","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e100% cotton wide-wale corduroy, poly lining · deep box pleats · angled hip pockets, tabbed rear pocket · Country Road, Australia · 1980s · 83cm long, 76cm hip flat · tagged a vintage 12, fits smaller\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUnder ordinary light she reads flat charcoal, but lean in close and the wale throws up small hints of brown along every ridge, warmth hiding inside what looks like a cold colour from across the room.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe wale runs wide and flat underfoot, a hundred small ridges holding light the way a ploughed field holds it at dusk, warmth and shadow alternating down the same narrow rows. Country Road has been building exactly this kind of quiet, considered basic in Australia since 1970, pieces meant to be lived in rather than admired once and put away, and this one carries that instinct through every deep, unhurried pleat. Made sometime in the 1980s, when a corduroy skirt this structured still counted as proper daywear, she has the patience of a piece built to outlast a single season, or several.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo angled pockets sit at the front hip, cut on the diagonal rather than straight, and a third pocket at the back carries its own buttoned flap, tabbed and functional rather than decorative. She closes at centre back with a metal zip and a single plastic button at the waistband, and belt loops run the waist for anyone who wants to cinch her further. The hem falls to 103cm around, full enough that the pleats have real room to swing.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44180518961286,"sku":null,"price":95.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_4077.jpg?v=1784790903"},{"product_id":"half-light-capture-2000s-2010s-tweed-and-tulle-godet-skirt","title":"Half Light · Capture 2000s Tweed and Tulle Godet Skirt","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePoly\/viscose tweed alternating with nylon tulle godets · inky blue-black · invisible side zip · fully lined · Capture · 2000s-2010s · 77cm long, 65cm hip flat · tagged AU 18\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSix panels of tweed alternate with six of tulle, solid then sheer then solid again, so the skirt reads as one fabric from a distance and admits the trick only once it starts to move.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe tweed itself is a fine poly-viscose weave, inky enough to read black in most light and only give up its blue at the edges of the day, set edge to edge against panels of nylon tulle so sheer they hold almost no colour of their own. Whoever engineered this skirt built the flare from real gore construction, tulle set directly into the seams as proper godets rather than added afterward as trim, which is the part worth admiring regardless of what the label says. Made sometime in the 2000s or 2010s, when tailoring this considered still turned up in ordinary work wardrobes rather than only on runways.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eShe closes at the side with an invisible zip, no visible teeth or tape breaking the tweed's surface, and sits fully lined so the tulle panels never touch skin directly. Each godet widens gradually from waist to hem, which is where all the movement lives, the tulle catching air the tweed never could on its own.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44180665467014,"sku":null,"price":65.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3821.jpg?v=1784791869"},{"product_id":"origami-ts-taking-shape-2000s-pinstripe-stretch-skirt","title":"Origami · TS Taking Shape 2000s Pinstripe Stretch Skirt","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePinstripe stretch weave · folded origami pleat at front hem · back vent · wide elastic waistband · TS (Taking Shape), Australia · 2000s · 78cm long, 45cm waist stretching to 55 · tagged a vintage 14\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFolds at the front hem do something the rest of the skirt does not: refuses to lie flat,  origami creases that catch the pinstripe mid-line and send them off at a different angle, so the stripes stop marching for exactly one moment before falling back into order.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe stretch comes built into the weave itself, viscose carrying nylon, polyester and elastane so the pinstripe moves with a body rather than resisting it, the waistband alone giving a full ten centimetres of ease. TS, more properly Taking Shape, has been designing curve fashion in Melbourne since 1985, one of Australia's longest-running specialists in exactly this kind of considered, wearable tailoring for real bodies rather than sample sizes. This one was made sometime in the 2000s, the origami fold at the hem doing the same job a dart usually does, just louder about it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe waistband sits a full 6cm deep and stretches generously, 45cm easing out to 55cm at the waist and 55cm to 66cm at the hip, built for real movement rather than a single held pose. A vent opens at the back for ease through the stride.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44180830126214,"sku":null,"price":65.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3850.jpg?v=1784792896"},{"product_id":"shorthand-weiss-1980s-spiral-print-double-breasted-blazer","title":"Shorthand · Weiss 1980s Spiral-Print Double-Breasted Blazer","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eCotton, linen and ramie · double-breasted with faced V neckline and flap hip pockets · Weiss · 1980s · length 59cm flat · tagged a vintage 10, nearer a modern AU 10-12 · exhibition condition\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLook closely and the print stops being polka dots. Every white shape is its own small spiral, drawn by a hand that never lifted the pen, the kind of doodle worked out on a phone pad during a call that is running long. No two spirals turn quite the same number of times or sit quite the same width. Whoever set this print for Weiss let the drawing stay a drawing, scattered loose across near-black cotton twill rather than snapped into a grid.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePower dressing in the eighties was never really about power so much as armour, shoulders built out until a room had no choice but to notice who had entered it. This jacket belongs to that decade's particular alchemy: structure standing in for confidence, tailoring behaving like a kind of borrowed certainty. Weiss built her name on exactly this trick, and what survives here is the print doing something stranger than the silhouette, a hand-drawn spiral let loose across the cloth instead of snapped into the usual obedient grid. That small refusal, pattern behaving like a doodle instead of a print, is the particular magic of her at this moment, and it is why the jacket earns its place in the archive rather than a costume box.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe waist is seamed in close, princess lines running from bust to hip so the jacket nips before it releases. There is no separate collar, just the front edges themselves folding back into a soft, faced V that sits open at the throat. One button runs down each side in the double-breasted style. Flap pockets sit at the hip, and the cuffs each close with three smaller buttons in the same near-black. She is fully lined throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44181156036742,"sku":null,"price":155.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3857.jpg?v=1784795789"},{"product_id":"field-notes-aurelie-1980s-illustrated-rose-print-party-dress","title":"Rose Hipped · Aurélie 1980s Illustrated Rose Print Party Dress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eAurélie · 1980s · tagged a vintage 10 · exhibition condition · puff sleeves \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e· structured drop waist \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e· keyhole back with bejewelled button \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e· tulle petticoat\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe roses on this dress were never meant to look painted. Look closely and every petal is built from a fine cross-hatch, ink over ink, the way a botanist might shade a specimen before the age of photographs: peach over lavender over a teal so deep it reads as shadow. It is a print that rewards standing still in front of it, which is a strange thing to ask of a party dress.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA dress like this descends from a very particular lineage: the party frock that never quite forgot the ballgown it once was, its waist dropped low the way waists dropped in the twenties, then again in the eighties when nostalgia came back around wearing bigger sleeves. Aurélie is barely a whisper of a name now, but whoever set this print onto cloth understood that a screen-printed rose could still ache like something painted by hand, if the ink was allowed to cross-hatch instead of flatten. That is the particular magic of her: an ordinary manufacturing trick, worked patiently enough to fool the eye into tenderness. The tulle beneath the skirt is inherited too, borrowed from grander dresses and smuggled quietly into a Tuesday-night frock. It is why she belongs here: not because anyone remembers her name, but because someone, once, refused to let a party dress stay simple.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe sleeves are gathered into a soft puff at the shoulder, and the bodice drops into a structured waist seam before the skirt is gathered full below it, a self-fabric bow tied at the back of that seam for good measure. The back itself opens into a long keyhole from nape to waist, closed at the top with a single bejewelled button, with a concealed zip. Underneath, a tulle petticoat is built into the hem, just enough to lift the skirt without announcing itself.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44183840424070,"sku":null,"price":135.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_4011.jpg?v=1784851040"},{"product_id":"undertow-paola-ermini-firenze-1990s-2000s-sheer-knit-dress","title":"Undertow · Paola Ermini Firenze 2000s Sheer Knit Dress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003ePaola Ermini Firenze · 2000s · no size tagged, generous stretch fits a broad range · exhibition condition, no flaws · \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eViscose-elastane gossamer knit · boat neck \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e · batwing sleeves with a tapered cuff \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e · deep side vents\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHold this dress up to a lamp and you can see straight through it, a fine dark knit that keeps its secrets badly. Whatever is worn underneath shows through as a soft shadow, the ghost of a seam, a strap, a shape. It is a dress built on that small tension, decent from a distance and confessional up close.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a whole quiet school of dressing built on this kind of restraint, women learning from the eighties onward that a dress could be a single unbroken thought rather than a sentence full of commas: one seam, one drop, one idea allowed to fall exactly as gravity intended. The batwing belongs to that school, engineered so the sleeve becomes the bodice becomes the skirt without ever announcing where one stops. Paola Ermini still works this way in Florence, in cloth so fine it behaves more like a held breath than a fabric. What makes this piece worth keeping is the discipline of it: nothing added, nothing excused, a dress that trusts a single cut to do the work most designers spend six seams doing badly.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe neckline sits wide and straight across the collarbone in a boat cut, with dramatic batwing sleeves that taper down to a fitted, elasticated cuff. The body falls loose from the shoulder before dropping into deep vents at each side seam, the hem finishing in soft, uneven points. There is no visible closure. She pulls on, and the knit does the rest of the shaping itself. Worn loose she reads as an easy layering piece over trousers; cinched at the waist with a metal belt, or worn alone, she does just as well as a dress in her own right.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44183842717830,"sku":null,"price":135.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3898.jpg?v=1784851043"},{"product_id":"curtain-call-nicola-waite-2000s-permanently-scrunched-jersey-cardigan","title":"Curtain Call · Nicola Waite Early 2000s Permanently Scrunched Jersey Cardigan","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNicola Waite · early 2000s · tagged a size 1, length 56cm flat · \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eGrey marle cotton-polyester jersey \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e· permanently scrunched · round neck \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e· hidden metal popper closure  \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e·  cotton fringe and satin ribbon trim\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe whole surface of this cardigan catches light in small broken pieces, the way water does, or paper does after somebody has balled it up and then thought better of it. Nothing here is an accident of the wash. Every crease was put there on purpose and told to stay.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSomewhere in the nineteen-eighties, cloth stopped being asked to stay flat. Pleating turned permanent, texture turned structural, and a crease became something to design on purpose rather than fight with an iron, the way a sculptor plans a fold into bronze. This cardigan belongs to that quieter Australian branch of the same idea: a jersey told, once, exactly how to hold itself, and never asked again. Nicola Waite hid the closures rather than showing them off, fringe and ribbon standing in for a button you were never meant to notice. That restraint, the willingness to let the fabric carry the whole argument, is what earns her a place here. Texture as decision, not accident.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe neckline sits round and close to the throat, and the front closes with large metal popper buttons hidden beneath a black satin ribbon placket, trimmed along the edge with a fine cotton fringe. The poppers are enamelled black, though a little of that enamel has begun to lift at the edges to show the gold metal beneath, a flaw that lives entirely out of sight once she is done up and does not affect how she wears. Her own care label is unusually direct about it: this garment has been permanently scrunched, ironing is expressly forbidden, and the scrunch will only soften slowly, over years, on its own terms.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44183846977670,"sku":null,"price":88.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_3916.jpg?v=1784851058"},{"product_id":"chrysalis-lisa-ho-1990s-2000s-cream-wrap-duster-coat","title":"Chrysalis · Lisa Ho Early 2000s Cream Wrap Duster Coat","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eCotton-nylon blend with a permanent crinkle finish and a soft self-stripe sheen · shawl collar, wrap front with two swirled resin buttons, self-tie belt · Lisa Ho · early 2000s · labelled AUS 10, US 6, EUR 36, length 115cm flat · exhibition condition, no flaws\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe buttons are the first thing worth looking at, two wide swirled resin discs the colour of something left out in weather, cream shading into amber at the centre the way old bone does. Everything else on this coat is quiet by comparison, which is clearly the point.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLong before this coat, the wrap belonged to robes and kimonos, to garments closed by the body rather than by hardware, and every wrap coat since has been quietly borrowing that logic. This one wears it lightly: two buttons standing in for what could have been six, a self-tie belt doing most of the actual work, a shape descended from dressing gowns pretending to be outerwear. Lisa Ho is a name better known for colour, beading and spectacle, which makes the restraint here almost an argument in itself, proof that the same hand could do quiet as convincingly as it did loud. That range, more than the label, is what makes a piece worth archiving.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe collar is cut wide and soft enough to wear standing up around the throat or folded back into a shawl, and the coat wraps rather than buttons straight, closing at an angle across the body with those two swirled resin buttons doing the work. A self-fabric belt ties at the waist, and the hip pockets are set on the diagonal rather than straight, angled into the wrap the same way the front closure is. The cloth itself carries a permanent crinkle from the nylon-cotton blend it is woven from, with a faint self-stripe running through it that catches a soft, almost metallic sheen in direct light. The lining is acetate throughout, and her own care label, unusually, signs off with an exclamation mark: dry clean only, warm iron, enjoy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44183848943750,"sku":null,"price":168.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_4039.jpg?v=1784851071"},{"product_id":"ledger-raphael-1980s-windowpane-check-prairie-dress","title":"Ledger · Raphael Late 1970s Windowpane Check Prairie Dress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eAcetate faille · black windowpane check · leg-of-mutton puff sleeves · gathered flounce hem · Raphael · late 1970s · tagged a vintage 10 but fits closer to an XS · well-loved, a wounded bird\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe check on this dress runs so fine and so even it reads from a distance like ruled paper, a page waiting to be written on rather than a print at all. Up close it breaks apart into hundreds of small white crossings on black, patient and exact, the kind of pattern that only makes sense once you stop trying to look at all of it at once.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe leg-of-mutton sleeve keeps resurrecting itself: properly Victorian first, then again in the nineteen-seventies, when designers went looking backward for a volume they had forgotten how to want. Whoever made this dress reached for the same well, folding a prairie silhouette and a dropped yoke around a fabric more often seen on a schoolboy's shirt than a woman's dress. Raphael left no trace beyond the label, but setting plain black against so fine a check, rather than matching the two, was a real decision, not an accident of the cutting table. It is that decision, small and slightly contrary, that makes her worth keeping.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA solid black yoke drops low across the chest and shoulders before the checked body gathers in fully beneath it, full enough to swing. Three small buttons in the check fabric sit fastening at one shoulder seam. The sleeves balloon into a full leg-of-mutton puff at the bicep, nearly twice the width of the wrist, before narrowing sharply just beneath the puff and running fitted down to a neat check cuff. The hem finishes in a single gathered flounce, also in the check, that runs the full width of the skirt. Under both arms the black has worn down to a soft, bruised purple, the mark of a body that kept her close and warm for years; dealers call a piece like this a wounded bird, and she carries the name without shame.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"caitiedid","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44183850287238,"sku":null,"price":95.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/files\/DSC_4073.jpg?v=1784851625"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0657\/5960\/8966\/collections\/DSC_4074.jpg?v=1785549165","url":"https:\/\/checkout.caitiedid.shop\/collections\/womenswear.oembed","provider":"caitiedid","version":"1.0","type":"link"}