Butter Yellow Cocktail Dress
Dress
1950-1960
Yellow
Synthetic blend
39.5 in. (bust), 28.375 (waist), 40 (hip)
Stanley Korshak Chicago
Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States
2013.11
This women’s cocktail dress, in butter yellow, is composed of synthetic blended slubbed fabric, lace, and taffeta. Both the front sweetheart neckline and fitted short sleeves are finished using the scalloped edge of the lace. The bodice has an asymmetrical pleated taffeta inset across the bust that we believe was covered by a bow or other decorative element that has been lost. The dress closes with a matching yellow metal zipper center back. The band at the waist joins the bodice to the skirt which has two pleats at side front, two darts side back, and a center back seam creating a slight A-line skirt that ends below the knee. There is a Stanley Korshak Chicago label in the back of the dress.
Hyman Stanley Korshak (1884-1963) opened his first shop in Chicago on April 6, 1910, and was “a leading arbiter of American female fashions.” In 1929, he moved to upper Michigan Avenue, now known as “Magnificent Mile,” and was credited as helping to create one of the city’s primary shopping districts for fashion. Persuading Paris fashion makers to make garments in basic sizes that he could bring back to his shop for immediate sale, Korshak sought to make high class fashions more accessible to middle- and upper-class individuals. However, the Korshak brand still created individually designed pieces commissioned by specific people, and this remained a key source of income. The cocktail dress in this exhibition was most likely not one of a kind, but part of a series that could be purchased off the rack.
-Gross
References
“About Stanley Korshak.” Stanley Korshak. Accessed July 3, 2023. https://stanleykorshak.com/pages/about.
Gale, Dr. Neil. “H. Stanley Korshak, One of Chicago’s First Luxury Women’s Apparel Merchants.” The Digital Research Library of Illinois History Journal ™, August 24, 2021. https://drloihjournal.blogspot.com/2021/08/h-stanley-korshak-one-of-chicagos-first-luxury-womens-apparel-merchants.html.
Holton, Lisa. “Retailer Stanley Korshak to Close by End of July.” Chicago Sun-Times (IL). May 15, 1990, sec. Financial.
