This dress is just so wrong it's right, like dumping a bag of peanut butter M&Ms into a bag of pretzels (try it, you'll see), or like Paula Abdul's "Straight Up," or like Robert Downey Jr. (That last link MOSTLY safe for work.) Like all of the above, I want it badly, but in the interests of NOT filling up my closets with dresses that I won't wear but will instead just haul out from time to time, try on, and leave in a heap on the bed (to the mounting irritation of Mr. Dress A Day), I'm posting it here, instead.
This is from Birdsong Vintage, a seller on the new Main Street Vintage collaborative listing site. (And I have to say … from what I saw, their prices are really really good. More of those folks with time machines! Why doesn't somebody hook me up? I won't step on any butterflies!) I'm showing you the back because otherwise you can't really see the print; don't worry, if you click on the image you can also see the front.
Anyway — the lurid pink and green and the busy, busy print featuring geishas and what look like triffids (not that you could tell without invading the wearer's personal space) call to me … but the tight waist (it's B38, but W26) says "no, no!" (or maybe "cut down on the sweet potato fries!") Either way, it's not for me, but at $45, it might just be for you.
A Dress A Day 
This is too close to something my grandmother used to wear. Eeewww.
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I think my Mom had a dress just like this one!And Erin, you know I love you, but that photo of RDJ is NOT the kind of thing I want to see first thing on Monday morning!
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My first thought before reading any text, was, “Boy, that’s an ugly dress.” I respect that fact that it’s vintage and love the style, but that fabric, wow, that’s hard to respect or love.
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But he’s yummy! And you just know he’s the kind of man who will appreciate (and feed) the vintage dress addiction.Andrea
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Cute dress, but not for me. I have never understood RDJ’s attraction. He’s a mess. Aim higher, ladies.Amy
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I like it and I totally understand the appeal. Vintage colorways were so unusual. We just don’t seem to see color combos like that these days. I also think the model looks fabulous in it. I really like the twirling shot. It adds some depth to the presentation.
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I love the style! She has some other really great dresses there too. Ive got my eye on one!
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I really love this dress and all the sellers there have such a great selection.
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Hmmm, interesting comments! I had one very similar – and yes, I am a granny (nine times over). Made the dress in highschool (1963).
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I like it! ditto above comments on vintage colorwaysI’ve purchased several things from the Main Street Vintage site. Great sellers & great prices.
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I would have invested in this dress for resale in a heartbeat. This is one of the things I love about vintage. Out of the ordinary patterns that make you stop and think. Things that you will never see again. I often stop and think about what the designers must have been thinking. With so much going on in the 50s world of abstract art, I am always delighted to see it reflected in a print like this. Diane Be daring, be different, be impractical; be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary. Cecil Beaton (1842 – 1914)
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I can’t decide if I love it or hate it! I’m so confused……
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What the heck is with that girl’s pose and expression when you click the picture link?
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Thank you for the story link, I had read that in school and was recently trying to remember what the heck it was, Ray Bradbury of course.Oh, and I like the dress, it’s something I would have worn in highschool in the 80s if I found it at the thrift store.
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Did you know that today MSN proclaimed this the year of the dress? You’re pretty influential.I’m a new reader, plowing through the archives and enchanted, even though I don’t sew and I diagree with your taste in dresses about half the time. It doesn’t matter! I love every posting. At least so far.
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Shopping in Texas this evening, I thought of you, because the department store (Dillards?) had LOVELY cotton dresses that were so CUTE….and they were in the juniors department so they were all like, size 1, 3, and 5. Damn them!
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That dress hurts my eyes.
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Erin, I must have a similarly demented sense of color, because a few years ago I resued a big chiffon scarf in these exact same colors (but in a paisley print) from my mother’s garage-sale pile.I have yet to find anything to wear it with, or anywhere to wear it, but I’m determined that—someday—I WILL WEAR THAT SCARF, Come hell or high water! (Actually, the wearing of that scarf may be one of the signs of the coming of both hell and high water. The eighth sign of the Apocalypse?…)
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Love the dress and certainly would wear it. It is fun and different. This seller has nice items!
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I LOVEa) the dressb) the fabric — pattern and colorway — of the dressc) Robert Downey, Jr.although, that photo of him is just a little too twee for my taste. But my, he has some shapely legs.
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Thank you for the link to Main Street Vintage! There’s some great stuff there (though I do wish you could search by category).I thank you, by the way. My overstuffed closet and understuffed wallet do not.
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Yum to both dress and Downey,
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Don’t love this dress but have you seen what the sellers at Main Street Vintage have? I now have an empty wallet! Ebay better watch out!
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