threads of the sixties
Late 1960's & Early 1970's
Late 1960s-Early 1970s Dress with long skirt in blue-green pattern
Material: polyester
Donor's story
Carolyn McClurkan, resident of Bremerton, WA.
McClurkan grew up in Memphis and met her husband, pediatrician J.M. (Mike) McClurkan, when she was in graduate school at Tulane University in New Orleans and he was attending there as a medical student. She earned a master’s degree in Spanish, which helped launch her interest in history and culture. While her husband served as commanding officer of the Navy hospital in Guam, she began working at the Micronesian Area Research Center at the University of Guam. Later she earned a second master’s degree from the University of Washington in Library and Information Science and became a member of the Academy of Certified Archivists. She has archived many interesting collections, including those of Dorothy Stimson Bullitt, founder of KING-TV in Seattle.Â
Description
Late 1960s-early 1970s unlined polyester dress with floor-length skirt, long cuffed sleeves, narrow v-neck. Complex angular blue and green print fabric pattern bears paisley portions. Plastic back zipper bears CC brand. Sleeve cuffs closure comprises plastic buttons with loops. No label because dress is homemade by donor. Dress pattern use unknown.
Polyester context
A polyester textile is the same PET material (polyethylene terephthalate) as a plastic soda bottle, only extruded into a filament rather than molded into a container. In 1950 DuPont was the original maker of polyester in the US (based on British science researchers). By the 1960s their invention freed women from their ironing boards as they poured into the workforce, feeling liberated in their double-knit pantsuits. Polyester held bright colors better than cotton, linen or wool, making it ideal for psychedelic prints, disco attire, and sports teams on new color televisions. It was inexpensive, and it didn’t wear out.
