The Shrimpton Couture Archives

• This was a dress produced for the shops and it would have been made specifically for the wedding collection that year.
  
• The dress still has its original hang tags in place and was never worn.
• It has that same bias cut draped feel as the McQueen that Elle Fanning borrowed and wore recently so that will give you an idea of it on the body.
• It is one that will come to life even more once it is on an actual body and will only truly come to life when worn. 
• It is a dress that definitely takes inspiration from the bias cut couture pieces of the 1920s and 1930s. 
• The dress is made from a beautifully weighted ivory silk satin that has that same liquid feel that the best of the 1930s pieces did that were made from this similar fabrics. Like those dresses of the thirties this is also cut on the bias but with a more shaped silhouette.
• I love that the fabric is heavy enough and that the dress is lined so that it will not highlight 'flaws' underneath like some bias cut pieces can.
• It is cut to flow over the body and skims over the bust, waist and hips to the floor. The neckline drops into a V at the front for a bit of skin to show. It glides over the bust and there is this interesting softly curved seam that starts at the bust and runs down into the side seam. This not not only helps to add a little shape but it also becomes this interesting design feature and a subtle way for him to work in one of his signature angled seams.
• The skirt continues past and over the hips and then flares out as it reaches the hem.
• At the back there is extra fabric worked around the centre seam to give you a bit of a trailing feel behind you. This flaring out at the bottom and the extra bit at the back give you fabulous movement when you walk or move. It also adds to the hourglass shape the dress has.
• The sleeves are incredible. They are set in these soft loops around each arm. They leave the sides of the shoulders bare and really add to the thirties feel of the dress.
• It is in its original uncut length and is fully lined in an ivory silk and closes with a hidden set back zipper. The bias cut fabric does have some stretch. The measurements below give you the comfortable range the fabric has when lying flat. The bias cut should allow it to fit a range of sizes. Has its original tags attached. I see perhaps a tiny bit of grubbiness around the hem hear and there but I am being very picky. It otherwise looks to have worn very little if at all.
• Tagged a McQueen 44 
• Excellent condition

Bust: 18-20" flat across from side seam to side seam
Waist: to 15" flat across from side seam to side seam
Hips: to 20" flat across from side seam to side seam
Length: 64" from top of shoulder to front hem, 76" the longest point of the back hem

Modern Sizing Equivalent: SML-LRG

Reference Photo: Elle Fanning in Spring 2008 Alexander McQueen, from our archives, at the Critics Choice After Party, January 2023.

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