Description
The designer Diane Freis is best known for creating feminine, boho style dresses in gorgeous, colorful print fabrics, beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Many of these lovely creations are made of lightweight polyester georgette, but this evening dress and shawl combination is a more unusual example of her work. Both pieces are made of pale gold polyester lamé in an amazing animal print: pink, black, and off white tiger stripes are combined with a design of cheetahs and lions’ heads! The fun fabric has Freis’s signature printed in it, also. The blouson dress bodice has elastic at its top edge, trimmed with a wide double ruffle in a contrasting, black and gold tiger stripe. The 4 tassel-trimmed ties on the bodice can be worn several ways, including halter style, tank style, and strapless. The waist panel in the black and gold tiger stripe print has elastic shirring gathering it into a puckered texture. The full skirt is gathered where it meets the waist panel and flares out to the hem. Vertical ruffles run from waist to hem, adding lots of movement and visual interest! The dress is designed to pull on, with no zipper or other fastenings. The matching triangular shawl has a ruffled hem. It could also be worn tied around the waist and hips. The lightweight poly lamé fabric is semi-sheer. The bodice is unlined. The waist panel is lined with attached gauze or muslin, and the skirt is lined with 2 separate layers: cream polyester taffeta and white poly organza. The animal print fabric has a bit more body than Freis’s more typical poly georgette dresses, due to the metallic fibers woven into it. These metallic fibers do make it a bit scratchy, so if you are very sensitive to this, it may not be the dress for you. This fabulous Diane Freis animal print party dress set from the late 1970s or early 80s is in very good, near excellent condition, with just a little bit of loss to the stretchiness of the waist elastic from age. Fit for a disco diva, it will shine on the dance floor!
Size: approx. S (smallest at bust).
- Bust: 26 inches unstretched. Stretches up to 36 inches max. (Measured at elastic top of bodice).
- Waist: 25 inches flat, stretching up to 32 max.
- Hip: full (52 inches flat).
- Total length: 39 inches from underarm to hem.
- Underarm to waist: 10 inches laid flat, but will pull up a bit shorter when worn, due to blouson style.
- Waist to hem length: 28 inches.
- Shawl: 70 inches long from end to end, 18.5 inches wide at center.
- Label: Diane Freis Original, 100% polyester
- The dress is labeled as dry clean only, but I carefully hand-washed it with no issues.
