george halley
Spring 1967 George Halley Couture Pale Pink Dress w Rhinestones, Hand Emroidery & Flower Detailing
- The dress is from the Spring 1967 George Halley collection.
- It was made under the creative direction of George Halley.
- The twin of this dress in a different colour resides in the permanent collection of the Met Museum. Each dress would have been individual individually ordered by a client and it's possible that both the one that I have and the one in The Met are the only ones that exist in those colours.
- Halley was one of the great American Couturiers and he started his career working for Charles James. When he opened his own atelier in 1966 he was well on his way to fame. He won the Coty Award in 1968 and his work is on par with couture. He is one of my personal favourite designers.
- Women's Wear Daily called him 'a designer in a lovely world of his own'.
- This is an absolutely outstanding dress that shows the extreme level of detail that was being done in this era.
- The dress would have been made entirely by hand in his workshops.
- It is not perfect but it's small flaws are forgivable for what it is. Please read the entire listing carefully.
- The dress is made from a soft pink silk netting that tops an inner layer of a pale pink silk. The netted layer has an elaborate hand embroidered leaf and flower pattern done on a silver-black metal thread.
- Added over that to cover the entire surface of the dress are hand cut silk ans velvet flowers, prong set rhinestones, iridescent beads set by hand and tiny silver sequins.
- The front has a wide scooped neckline that is completely embellished all around the edges with clusters of the iridescent, beads and rhinestones. The same elaborate border circles around the edge of each sleeve.
- The shoulders are soft and the sleeves are capped so that they poof out slightly in a delightful shape.
- The bodice skims over you to a high empire cut just under the bust. There is an attached ivory velvet band that covers the seam there. This ends in a pretty and romantic bow at the back.
- The pattern on the bodice is set closer together with a more dense application of all the detailing. Once the skirt begins, the pattern is spread out slightly more to accommodate the width of the skirt.
- There is a full built-in well-made and structured underskirt made of pink silk and then the net skirt top layer sits over that.
- The top net layer is very full and there are many yards of fabric that make it up. It is elaborately detailed all the way around.
- The hem of the skirt is finished with a border of the velvet hand-cut flowers that have a prong set rhinestone at their centres and the iridescent beads spreading outward on the petals.
- All of the detailing has been applied to the dress by hand. It would have taken hundreds of hours to accomplish this and it is on par with true Couture.
- The workmanship on the dress is spectacular and I have included a lot of close-ups for you to see. It is even more amazing in person.
- The dress closes with a hand set back zipper and the bow snaps and hooks to close. The dress is hand lined in a pale pink silk. There is overall grubbiness/light discoloration and small marks on the velvet band and bow. It could be easily un-tacked and replaced. I see slight changes in colour along some of the edges of the inner pink silk lining, grubbiness along the hem and on some of the velvet flowers. There is some splitting of the silk along the edge of the inner hem. These are all minor overall but mentioned for accuracy
- There was no size tag present. Please go buy the measurements listed below.
- Great condition with the notes above
Sleeves: 7.5" and the opening is 10" around
Inset shoulders: 13.5"
Bust: to 16.5" flat across from side seam to side seam
Seam under the bust: to 14" flat across from side seam to side seam
Hips: open
Bodice: 10" from top of shoulder to waist
Total length: 54" from top of shoulder to hem
Modern Sizing Equivalent: XS-SML
Item# DD5808
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SIZE GUIDE
Please review all measurements carefully. More often than not, vintage garments do not fit any size category exactly. If in doubt, measure a garment of your own that fits and is a similar cut and compare it's measurements to the listed measurements below.




















