Send in the Gowns

1960s vintage Herbert Sondheim dress

I decided to take a tour of my links to see what's on the vintage market right now. My first stop was Blue Velvet Vintage, which has a wonderful collection of 50s and 60s dresses. Pure Mad Men, in fact, can't you imagine Joan wearing this Herbert Sondheim dress?

She probably couldn't afford it even combining her salary as a secretary and her husband's salary as a resident M.D. in 1962. Herbert Sondheim dresses were demi-couture, sold only in the best stores. There's a post about Herbert Sondheim at the Coture Allure blog, with a picture of a day dress that sold for $160.00 in 1958. That's about $1200 in today's dollar. This dress was probably more expensive, which means it was a really good buy, at around $250.00, for whoever bought it between the time I started this post and today. Rats. It was my size, too.

Herbert Sondheim is also the father of composer Stephen Sondheim, who wrote Send in the Clowns for the musical A Little Night Music, which I saw in its first run in 1973. It was great.

Blue Velvet Vintage has a lot of other great things, in very wearable sizes, still in stock. Check out this great Audrey dress, and this oh-so-50's Suzy Perette swing dress. *Le sigh.*