1960s Norman Norell from Martha Boutique Black Embellished Shift Dress

Norman Norell was a celebrated mid-century American fashion designer known amongst fashion crowds as “the American Balenciaga”. Of impeccable provenance, this dress retailed in the creme de la creme of fashion boutiques called Martha. The owner, Martha Phillips founded her high-end Park Avenue boutique in the 1930s and sold the best fashions to the upper echelon of New York and Palm Beach society for decades. She and her daughter went on to open six further shops across the USA. Martha stores became fashion hubs and played host to fashion shows starring designers such as Halston, Valentino, James Galanos and Pauline Trigère. To quote The New York Times, Miss Martha and her daughter were "the doyennes of Haute Couture in America." The last Martha boutique closed in 2003 in Palm Beach.

This exceptional early 1960s dress is tailored from a weighty black crepe, cut to a shift style with no sleeves and a rounded neckline. The dress is lined with black silk. The bottom third of the dress is adorned with heavy embellishment: row upon row of pearlescent bugle beads sitting atop a pale green-grey silk crepe, broken occasionally by a row of diamantes. There is a flap of coordinating beadwork a third of the way down the dress where the black silk meets the beadwork. It fastens at the back with a tonal black zip and hook-and-eye clasp.

This dress is in excellent vintage condition with no issues and Circa has carefully restored the beadwork by hand. The dress has no size or composition labels so please check our measurements closely as the fabric does not have any stretch to it. A best fit in our opinion for a size UK 8-10, US 4-6.

Note on Designer: Normal Norell was one of the first American designers to have his name on a dress label. Partnering with Hattie Carnegie from 1928-1940 and then with Anthony Traina until his death in 1960. Up to this point, Norell's name only appeared on tags as Triana-Norell until 1960 when he formed his own company, Norman Norell. The company closed in 1976.

MEASUREMENTS

BUST - 36 in. (91 cm)

WAIST - 36 in. (91 cm)

HIP - 38 in. (97 cm)

LENGTH - 36 in. (91 cm)