Regency Wedding Gown

The chic fashion label Albert Nipon began in 1954 as a maternity-wear company founded by married couple Albert and Pearl Nipon in their native city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Pearl, who’d been cutting and sewing fabric since she was a child, had previously run a dress shop with her sister before marrying Albert in 1953. When she was pregnant, Pearl found that the available clothes for expectant mothers “looked just terrible,” as she told WWD in 1974, so she decided to design her own line. Called Ma Mère, their company grew into a successful enterprise, eventually home to more than 100 stores nationwide. In the early 1970s, the couple decided to sell the maternity business to focus on a high-end women’s fashion label they named Albert Nipon. Pearl maintained the role of couturier, and her natural elegance and flair for fashion design helped make Albert Nipon an enduring success.

At the time of Albert Nipon’s founding, pantsuits and separates were in fashion. Despite this, the Nipons chose to focus on dresses. Pearl and Albert knew that their dresses — with their woven and natural fibers, intricate details and chic European sensibility — were unlike others on the market. The label would become known for its use of pussycat bows, elegant collars, cuffs, tucks and pleats. Their risk paid off, and at its peak Albert Nipon was generating $60 million in annual dress sales.

Celebrities such as Mary Tyler Moore, Barbara Walters and Rosalynn Carter wore Albert Nipon’s designs, and major retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Lord & Taylor carried the house’s dresses. Pearl Nipon’s instinctive sense of what women wanted their clothes to look like — stylish, feminine, comfortable and with unusual detailing — made Albert Nipon one of the most popular labels of its time.

Find vintage Albert Nipon dresses, scarves and other accessories on 1stDibs.

With entire museum exhibitions dedicated to examining fashion designers and their creations, we’re finally recognizing that costuming is art. Evening dresses over time have conveyed specific statements about social class, position and beliefs. Fashion is a powerful means of self-expression, and sophisticated vintage evening dresses and gowns by our favorite couturier play no small role in making us feel wonderful but, perhaps more importantly, making us feel like ourselves.

In the 16th century, dresses and gowns were so important that England's Queen Elizabeth I defined rules about what dresses women could wear — guidance included long skirts and fitted bodices. Forward-thinking designers have responded to this history.

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel reimagined traditionally masculine garments for feminine shapes, and her elegant evening dresses and gowns promoted comfort and grace in women’s wear that had been dominated in the previous century by layers of fabric. Christian Dior's gowns celebrated luxury and femininity in the late 1940s — and gave to women the gift of glamour they’d lost in the miserable years of the war. French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent introduced innovative and highly coveted dress designs in the 1960s while at the same time challenging sexist stereotypes about which members of society could wear tuxedos.

Works by unconventional British designer John Galliano — featured in houses like Givenchy and Dior — redefined limits that dressmakers faced in terms of material, construction and vision during the late 20th century. From his embroidered absinthe-green Oscars gown for actress Nicole Kidman to the iconic sleeveless Dior newspaper dress that Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw made famous, Galliano’s intricate and multifaceted work is reliably collectible and newsworthy

Today’s designers target an increasingly broad audience with their boundary-crossing work, and their tendency to play off of each other’s ideas means that every walk down the runway is also a walk through an entire history of fashion design and dress craftsmanship.

Whether you gravitate toward backless maxi dresses or silk charmeuse gowns by Alexander McQueen or embellished, ruffled floral-print designs by Chloe or Versace, there is an extraordinary collection of vintage and designer evening dresses and gowns waiting for you on 1stDibs.