Thea Porter combined exoticism, embellished ornamentation and luxurious fabrics in her pieces and her work was a phenomenon during her day. This style of dress is one of her most well known dresses and it has been one of her most loved styles since it was first created in 1968. The Thea Porter book that accompanied the 2015 Fashion and Textile Museum exhibit "Thea Porter 70s Bohemian Chic" (for which over a dozen pieces were pulled from my archives) has many example of stars from that time period wearing their versions. Kate Moss is perhaps the most notable of modern girls who have one and she caused a sensation when she wore her blue version for her wedding rehearsal in 2011. This is almost certainly a one of a kind, or a version of very few that would have been made. These dresses were made between 1969 up to about 1975 and we've included some various reference photos of similar pieces so you can get an idea of how gorgeous it is on the body.

This would make a phenomenal dress for the bride, looking for something nontraditional or as a part of a wedding weekend and of course it would be a stand-out piece in any Thea Porter collection.

The Thea Porter book states that this style of dress were 'generally made out of a combination of three different fabrics, which give it an enduring variety. If the skirt was in plain cloth cotton, the bodice was usually in brocade… We made the dress in every conceivable fabric, from embroidered chiffon to liberty cotton‘s to velvet…. The silhouette of a slimmer torso combined with a full skirt (composed of 4.5 m of fabric) and sleeves became the basis for Porter‘s 'gypsy or gipsy' dress'. (note that this is historically what the dress was called at the time and is mentioned for historical accuracy). The book goes on to talk about the cut and design of these dresses saying that 'the bust became an integrated part of the body, ending directly below the breasts to create an empire line. The cut is such that the bust is held in securely, yet pushed up, removing the necessity of wearing a bra. The uneven hem of the dress evolved as a form of collaboration between Thea and one of her first seamstresses, Meg Lake, who was self taught and didn’t realize that a circle of fabric cut on the bias would fall irregularly and need to be trimmed. Porter love that effect and the mistake became a design signature.'

This is a classic Thea dress that follows all of those design philosophies. The bodice of her dresses were often crafted in antique brocade or silks and I suspect that is what we are seeing that with the beautiful and delicate gold metal thread on a feather like silk organza that we see on this front and back of the bodice on the dress. I love the little piece of silk chiffon that sits at the top of each shoulder and has the little embroidered 3D rose there. An ivory velvet ribbon details the cut of the bodice and also defines the highly detailed wide band around the waist. The sleeves are a single layer of an ivory silk chiffon and have a touch of transparency to them. They are magnificently full and each one puffs out above an elastic cuff. A little velvet bow and another embroidered 3D flower sit on the end of each sleeve. The skirt is two layers, an inner silk layer that is cut on the bias and then floating over that is a bias cut of the same ivory silk organza that the sleeves are made out of. The silk of the skirt starts just under the wide band at the waist and it flares out in yards of silk. It has that perfectly imperfect asymmetrical hem described above so that one side falls slightly longer then the other. This one is extra special because of the extreme detailing that is done by an abundance of hand embroidered flowers that run all the way around the band of the waist. More flowers run all the way around the skirt in beautiful curving patterns in a beautiful curving pattern on both the back and the front. Placed within the highly detailed embroidered leaves are little flowers formed by scalloped ribbon. The final finish is a perfect little ivory bow at the waist. It is just wildly gorgeous. Excellent condition with a minor note below

The sleeves are unlined and the skirt is lined as described above. It closes with a back set zipper and each sleeve has elastic at the cuffs. I see some lifting and wear in and around the gold medallions around the shoulders. It looks like there have been some stitches put into help hold them down at some point but some are lifting and there are areas of the organza in between that is missing. Please see the photos after the label shot. It is an incredible dress

Sleeves: 18"
Shoulders: no true seam since they are inset
Bust: 17.5" flat across from side seam to side seam
Seam at the top of the waist band: 15" flat across from side seam to side seam
Waist at bottom of the band: 12.5" flat across from side seam to side seam
Hips: open
Bodice: 10" from shoulder to seam at top of waist band, 15" to waist seam
Total length: 56" from shoulder to longest points of hem

Modern Sizing Equivalent: XS-SML

Item# DD4852

Reference Photos: (1-2) Kate Moss in Thea Porter, for her wedding rehearsal, 2011.  /  (3) 1970 Thea Porter Dress from The MET Collection Online.  /  (4) Jane Fonda in Thea Porter.  /  (5) Model in Thea Porter, credit unknown.  /  (6) Joan Colins in a Gipsy Dress, with her sister Jackie in a robe with trailing sleeves over trousers, in two versions of Sheila Hudson's butterfly print, at the opening of the musical "1776" in 1970. From the book "Thea Porter: Bohemian Chic" by Laura McLaws Helms and Venetia Porter.  /  (7) Floral cotton voila Gipsy dress, 1969. Photography by Willie Christie. From the book "Thea Porter: Bohemian Chic" by Laura McLaws Helms and Venetia Porter.  /  (8) Actress Sharon Tate arriving at a party with Peter Sellers. She wears a Gipsy dress with moire bodice and polka-dot chiffon skirt and sleeves. London, July 1, 1969. From the book "Thea Porter: Bohemian Chic" by Laura McLaws Helms and Venetia Porter.  /  (9) Charlotte Rampling in Thea Porter, 1970s.  /  (10) Scanned from Vogue, Autumn/Winter 1970 by Liz Eggleston.  /  (11) Scanned from Vogue, April 1975 by Liz Eggleston.

This garment has been professionally cleaned, pressed and is odor free. Thoroughly checked over before shipping, it will be ready to wear upon arrival.

I have had this tucked away in my archives for quite some time and it is spectacular. This is it gorgeous little dress that is easy to wear and an extremely beautiful example of her work. It has a touch of a caftan feel to it and that combined with those spectacular sleeves makes it very special piece. Of all of Thea's pieces, her caftans and the dresses that had that caftan like feel, have come to represent Thea's work like no other pieces of her clothing that she designed. Everyone who was anyone wore her work back in the day, including the great Elizabeth Taylor who was a huge fan and collector. This dress is just spectacular and a very special piece.

The dress is very beautiful and is made from a printed silk chiffon. The fabric has a swirling paisley feeling design with a black backdrop and then the print is done in a greens mixed with pops of blue. The print runs over the entire dress. The bodice has an empire cut and the front scoops low and wide. Detailing the edge of the neck and down the front is an added antique gold metal cord embellishment. This goes all the way around the neckline to the back and then runs part way down the front where it closes with hand made frog knots made of the same cording. The cording also details the seam where the sleeves are set in and more of it sit above the scalloping detail of the skirt. Thea was known to hunt antique stores and markets during her extensive travels and use what she found in her designs and this is certainly a found antique textile. The dress buttons down the front to just past the waist. There is a seam set under the bust and then the dress falls from there in a loose and easy feel. The sleeves are magnificent. They are slim through the upper arm and then from just above the elbow to the cuff they balloon out to be spectacularly full. They are not lined for the lower balloon part of each sleeve and I love the touch of transparency this creates. The rest of the dress is lined in a black silk and the chiffon over it is semi-transparent like the sleeves. This see-through quality gives the fabric depth and a floating feel over the inner lining. The final detail is that little scalloped panel that runs around the skirt above the bottom hem. It adds just a tiny touch of movement, and added detail that is lovely. This is very special and rare piece of Thea's work and it is also very beautiful. Excellent condition

Fully lined in a hand set black silk lining. It closes down the front with gold antique cord loops and knots. Each cuff hooks to close. Tagged a vintage UK 12. Finished by hand throughout. There is some patina to the cording that is a natural occurrence of its age. A tiny bit of grubbiness to the seam under each arm on the inner lining. It is spectacular

Sleeves: 26" and 11" around the upper arm
Slightly inset shoulders: 14"
Bust: 17" flat across from side seam to side seam
Seam under the bust: 14.5" flat across from side seam to side seam
Hips: to 21" flat across from side seam to side seam
Bodice: 10.5" from the top of the shoulder to the seam under the bust
Total length: 56" from neck to hem

Modern Sizing Equivalent: XS-SML

Item# DD4570

All items are thoroughly checked over before shipping. Unless noted everything in our shop has been professionally cleaned. All sales are final. Overseas clients will be emailed to obtain agreement to our final sales policy before the order is shipped as per our return policy.

Thea Porter combined exoticism, embellished ornamentation and luxurious fabrics in her pieces and her work was a phenomenon during her day. This style of dress is one of her most well known dresses and it has been one of her most loved styles since it was first created in 1968. The Thea Porter book that accompanied the 2015 Fashion and Textile Museum exhibit "Thea Porter 70s Bohemian Chic" (for which over a dozen pieces were pulled from my archives) has many example of stars from that time period wearing their versions. Kate Moss is perhaps the most notable of modern girls who have one and she caused a sensation when she wore her blue version for her wedding rehearsal in 2011. This is almost certainly a one of a kind, or a version of very few that would have been made. These dresses were made between 1969 up to about 1975 and we've included some various reference photos of similar pieces so you can get an idea of how gorgeous it is on the body.

This would make a phenomenal dress for the bride, looking for something nontraditional or as a part of a wedding weekend and of course it would be a stand-out piece in any Thea Porter collection.

The Thea Porter book states that this style of dress were 'generally made out of a combination of three different fabrics, which give it an enduring variety. If the skirt was in plain cloth cotton, the bodice was usually in brocade… We made the dress in every conceivable fabric, from embroidered chiffon to liberty cotton‘s to velvet…. The silhouette of a slimmer torso combined with a full skirt (composed of 4.5 m of fabric) and sleeves became the basis for Porter‘s 'gypsy or gipsy' dress'. (note that this is historically what the dress was called at the time and is mentioned for historical accuracy). The book goes on to talk about the cut and design of these dresses saying that 'the bust became an integrated part of the body, ending directly below the breasts to create an empire line. The cut is such that the bust is held in securely, yet pushed up, removing the necessity of wearing a bra. The uneven hem of the dress evolved as a form of collaboration between Thea and one of her first seamstresses, Meg Lake, who was self taught and didn’t realize that a circle of fabric cut on the bias would fall irregularly and need to be trimmed. Porter love that effect and the mistake became a design signature.'

This is a classic Thea dress that follows all of those design philosophies. The bodice of her dresses were often crafted in antique brocade or silks and I suspect that is what we are seeing that with the beautiful and delicate gold metal thread on a feather like silk organza that we see on this front and back of the bodice on the dress. I love the little piece of silk chiffon that sits at the top of each shoulder and has the little embroidered 3D rose there. An ivory velvet ribbon details the cut of the bodice and also defines the highly detailed wide band around the waist. The sleeves are a single layer of an ivory silk chiffon and have a touch of transparency to them. They are magnificently full and each one puffs out above an elastic cuff. A little velvet bow and another embroidered 3D flower sit on the end of each sleeve. The skirt is two layers, an inner silk layer that is cut on the bias and then floating over that is a bias cut of the same ivory silk organza that the sleeves are made out of. The silk of the skirt starts just under the wide band at the waist and it flares out in yards of silk. It has that perfectly imperfect asymmetrical hem described above so that one side falls slightly longer then the other. This one is extra special because of the extreme detailing that is done by an abundance of hand embroidered flowers that run all the way around the band of the waist. More flowers run all the way around the skirt in beautiful curving patterns in a beautiful curving pattern on both the back and the front. Placed within the highly detailed embroidered leaves are little flowers formed by scalloped ribbon. The final finish is a perfect little ivory bow at the waist. It is just wildly gorgeous. Excellent condition with a minor note below

The sleeves are unlined and the skirt is lined as described above. It closes with a back set zipper and each sleeve has elastic at the cuffs. I see some lifting and wear in and around the gold medallions around the shoulders. It looks like there have been some stitches put into help hold them down at some point but some are lifting and there are areas of the organza in between that is missing. Please see the photos after the label shot. It is an incredible dress

Sleeves: 18"
Shoulders: no true seam since they are inset
Bust: 17.5" flat across from side seam to side seam
Seam at the top of the waist band: 15" flat across from side seam to side seam
Waist at bottom of the band: 12.5" flat across from side seam to side seam
Hips: open
Bodice: 10" from shoulder to seam at top of waist band, 15" to waist seam
Total length: 56" from shoulder to longest points of hem

Modern Sizing Equivalent: XS-SML

Item# DD4852

Reference Photos: (1-2) Kate Moss in Thea Porter, for her wedding rehearsal, 2011.  /  (3) 1970 Thea Porter Dress from The MET Collection Online.  /  (4) Jane Fonda in Thea Porter.  /  (5) Model in Thea Porter, credit unknown.  /  (6) Joan Colins in a Gipsy Dress, with her sister Jackie in a robe with trailing sleeves over trousers, in two versions of Sheila Hudson's butterfly print, at the opening of the musical "1776" in 1970. From the book "Thea Porter: Bohemian Chic" by Laura McLaws Helms and Venetia Porter.  /  (7) Floral cotton voila Gipsy dress, 1969. Photography by Willie Christie. From the book "Thea Porter: Bohemian Chic" by Laura McLaws Helms and Venetia Porter.  /  (8) Actress Sharon Tate arriving at a party with Peter Sellers. She wears a Gipsy dress with moire bodice and polka-dot chiffon skirt and sleeves. London, July 1, 1969. From the book "Thea Porter: Bohemian Chic" by Laura McLaws Helms and Venetia Porter.  /  (9) Charlotte Rampling in Thea Porter, 1970s.  /  (10) Scanned from Vogue, Autumn/Winter 1970 by Liz Eggleston.  /  (11) Scanned from Vogue, April 1975 by Liz Eggleston.

This garment has been professionally cleaned, pressed and is odor free. Thoroughly checked over before shipping, it will be ready to wear upon arrival.

I have had this tucked away in my archives for quite some time and it is spectacular. This is it gorgeous little dress that is easy to wear and an extremely beautiful example of her work. It has a touch of a caftan feel to it and that combined with those spectacular sleeves makes it very special piece. Of all of Thea's pieces, her caftans and the dresses that had that caftan like feel, have come to represent Thea's work like no other pieces of her clothing that she designed. Everyone who was anyone wore her work back in the day, including the great Elizabeth Taylor who was a huge fan and collector. This dress is just spectacular and a very special piece.

The dress is very beautiful and is made from a printed silk chiffon. The fabric has a swirling paisley feeling design with a black backdrop and then the print is done in a greens mixed with pops of blue. The print runs over the entire dress. The bodice has an empire cut and the front scoops low and wide. Detailing the edge of the neck and down the front is an added antique gold metal cord embellishment. This goes all the way around the neckline to the back and then runs part way down the front where it closes with hand made frog knots made of the same cording. The cording also details the seam where the sleeves are set in and more of it sit above the scalloping detail of the skirt. Thea was known to hunt antique stores and markets during her extensive travels and use what she found in her designs and this is certainly a found antique textile. The dress buttons down the front to just past the waist. There is a seam set under the bust and then the dress falls from there in a loose and easy feel. The sleeves are magnificent. They are slim through the upper arm and then from just above the elbow to the cuff they balloon out to be spectacularly full. They are not lined for the lower balloon part of each sleeve and I love the touch of transparency this creates. The rest of the dress is lined in a black silk and the chiffon over it is semi-transparent like the sleeves. This see-through quality gives the fabric depth and a floating feel over the inner lining. The final detail is that little scalloped panel that runs around the skirt above the bottom hem. It adds just a tiny touch of movement, and added detail that is lovely. This is very special and rare piece of Thea's work and it is also very beautiful. Excellent condition

Fully lined in a hand set black silk lining. It closes down the front with gold antique cord loops and knots. Each cuff hooks to close. Tagged a vintage UK 12. Finished by hand throughout. There is some patina to the cording that is a natural occurrence of its age. A tiny bit of grubbiness to the seam under each arm on the inner lining. It is spectacular

Sleeves: 26" and 11" around the upper arm
Slightly inset shoulders: 14"
Bust: 17" flat across from side seam to side seam
Seam under the bust: 14.5" flat across from side seam to side seam
Hips: to 21" flat across from side seam to side seam
Bodice: 10.5" from the top of the shoulder to the seam under the bust
Total length: 56" from neck to hem

Modern Sizing Equivalent: XS-SML

Item# DD4570

All items are thoroughly checked over before shipping. Unless noted everything in our shop has been professionally cleaned. All sales are final. Overseas clients will be emailed to obtain agreement to our final sales policy before the order is shipped as per our return policy.