This is the little black dress by one of the most revered fashion houses of all time and during Marc Bohan's time as head designer. He took over as creative director from Yves Saint Laurent in 1960 and stayed with the house of Dior until 1989, designing for numerous royal figures including Princess Grace of Monoco and Hollywood stars like Sophia Loren.

This Patron label demi-couture tailored dress has a number of couture elements and the label usually indicated a custom ordered piece. This dress is a superbly tailored shift style with a scoop neckline that sits quite high up sweeping the collar bone; very Holly Golightly and immortalised by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1961. This dress is probably from the same period or a few seasons later. The wool crepe is of extremely fine quality and there is a pleasing weight to the fabric. The dress is silk lined and there is a generous seam allowance too. Much of the dress has been constructed by hand. It fastens with a zip at the centre back and there is a decorative tie on the bust-line seam at the back as well as one covered button to fasten the top.

Overall, the condition is vintage excellent. There is one small area of thinning on the front, possibly moth damage which is very small and not immediately noticeable on inspection. This could be invisibly mended. I would normally have this restoration carried out but this is archival quality and the new owner may wish to instruct these works themselves. That said, this is very wearable as is and the thinning virtually indetectable when worn.

Estimated best fit up to UK size 10 or US 6.

MEASUREMENTS:
BUST - 35 in. (89 cm)
WAIST - 33 in. (84 cm)
HIP - 38 in. (96.5 cm)
LENGTH - 41 in. (104 cm)