1954 Dior Dark Gray Wool Dress

Dior dark gray wool dressmaker suit; consists of a bodice, jacket, and skirt; bodice- fitted, deep scoop neckline, center front zipper closure and hook/eyes, neckline single button closure, kimono gusset sleeves, lined black organza, bottom attached extra panel of gray silk with hanging elastic loops; jacket- short, box shape, double breasted, 6 large self-fabric and leather buttons, hand-worked buttonholes, knotched shawl collar, long set-in sleeves; lined gray silk taffeta; skirt- straight, back pleat, zipper and large hook/eye closure on both side seams of skirt, lined in black silk taffeta, hem bound in bias silk chiffon.

HCT.1968.2.1a-c

Spring-Summer 1954

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