Two-Piece Dior Wool Dress

Gray and white houndstooth check wool, two piece dress.
a. Bodice with pointed roll collar. 
Center front seam with slanted placket, 6" long, with 3 1" black sew through buttons/bound butonholes. Short dolman sleeves, cut one with bodice front and back with attached 1 1/2" wide cuffs. Under arm gusset. Vertical darts at shoulder and waist. Darts at back neckline; 3 small darts at back waist. 7" length of gray crepe de chine added at lower bodice to be tucked into skirt. Two snaps in front and back for attaching to skirt. Center back zipper, hook/eye. Attached inner chemise with hook/eye closure. 

b. Narrow skirt with center front and side front seams. 6" pleat at back skirt hem. Center back zipper; hook/eye. Fully interlined.

HCT.1968.2.3ab

Spring-Summer 1953

This dress belonged to Mrs. Harvey S. Firestone Jr. Born Elizabeth Parke in Decatur, Illinois in 1897 she was the daughter of Guy James Parke and Gertrude Chambers Parke. As a girl she attended Leed's School in England and Rosemary Hall in Greenwich, Connecticut, and graduated from Miss Wheeler's School in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1921, Elizabeth married Harvey S. Firestone Jr., the heir to the The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. They lived in Akron, Ohio and Newport, Rhode Island. Each year Mrs. Firestone traveled to Paris to purchase her clothes directly from designers and during the 1950s she was nominated for The Couture Group of the New York Dress Institute Inc.'s Best Dressed Women's list several times. Mrs. Firestone passed away in October, 1990 at the age of 93.

Christian Dior

Wool

1950-1959