#6610 $850
Malcolm Starr evening dress, 1970s
The American ready-to-wear manufacturer Malcolm Starr produced impeccable, elegant fashion during the 1960s and 1970s. His designs, found in up-scale department stores, were popular with well-to-do women.
The dress was originally owned by the wife of a U.S. Senator who was in office during the Kennedy years. It was purchased in the Julius Garfinckel store in Washington—see the label below.
The dress is fashioned from exquisite metallic brocaded satin. The demure pastels of the water borne flowers bring to mind the work of the great Impressionist, Claude Monet. The waist is accented with an aqua satin cummerbund. The slightly high waist and A-line skirt style are quite flattering on large hips.
Last year I visited an exhibit of The Unknown Monet at The Clark Institute in Williamstown, MA. When I first saw the skirt of our dress close up (4th picture down), I had the same feeling of delight as on viewing many of the early Monet paintings.
The closer I got to the canvases, the more immediately I felt the light and movement Monet experienced. As with painting, so with costume art: the human eye is a marvelous instrument. The haunting beauty of our dress—even on my lifeless mannequin—impresses the imagination with the vividness of a Monet.
Like all Malcolm Starr dresses, this beauty is finely finished. The bodice is lined with aqua satin; the skirt is interlined with aqua voile. The dress closes in back with a metal zipper.
The condition is excellent. It is clean and ready to wear.
It measures: 36" bust, 24" waist, 40" hip, 14 1/4" from the shoulder to the high waist, and 56" from the shoulder to the hem.
