1970s Stephen Burrows Slinky Taupe Jersey Wrap Dress

Stephen Burrows is one of my favorite designers. Burrows was first African American fashion designer to be known on an international scale and was also an award winning designer - he won the Coty award in 1973, '74 and '77. He was recently one of the designers featured in the film "Battle of Versailles" where he participated as one of the five chosen American designers to show their clothes along with the French couturiers at Versailles in 1973 (the other Americans present for that show were Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, Halston and Anne Klein, not bad company at all). His is best known for his fluid jersey dresses that draped onto the body and wrapped and tied. The lettuce hem - of which this dress has in a more subtle version of - is his signature finish. Here he taken a layer of a fluid taupe jersey and wrapped it around the body. At the front it is sewn into place by a complicated twist from which two long panels of fabric come out. These then wrap around the body and can be worn tied at the back and left trailing down or wrapped around the waist to create definition like I have done here. A long slit shows off leg when you move. It is very sexy and sophisticated. Excellent condition

There was recently an exhibit on his work called "When Fashion Danced" and it was the first major examination of Burrows' work. Here is what the museum said of his work: "Stephen Burrows: When Fashion Danced looks at the period spanning the 1970s when Stephen Burrows’s meteoric rise to fame made him not only the first African-American designer to gain international stature, but a celebrated fashion innovator whose work helped define the look of a generation. With vibrant colors, metallic fabrics, and slinky silhouettes that clung to the body, Burrows’s danceable designs generated a vibrant look that was of a piece with the glamorous, liberated nightlife of the era. Through photographs, drawings, and original garments, the exhibition will trace Burrows’s evolution from creating eclectic looks for his friends in the 1960s to his work with the chic 57th Street retailer Henri Bendel to the floor of Studio 54, as he dressed such 70s style icons as Cher, Liza Minnelli, and Diana Ross."

The dress is mode of a single layer of his fluid synthetic jersey except through the bust where there is two layers of jersey. It slips over the head and then wraps and ties around the body. The fabric does have stretch so it will fit a larger range of sizes

Bust: 15-18" flat across from side seam to side seam
Waist: 13-15" flat across from side seam to side seam
Hips: 19" flat across from side seam to side seam
Bodice: 15.5" from neck to waist
Skirt: 40" from waist to hem

Modern Sizing Equivalent: XS-MED

This garment has been professionally cleaned, pressed and is odor free. Thoroughly checked over before shipping, it will be ready to wear upon arrival.