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| Late 60s Dresses made for me by Maxine Ward, Chester, Montana |
Chester girls growing up in the ‘60s were fortunate to have
a talented seamstress to help them realize their formal dance and wedding gown
visions in this tiny prairie town far from any fashion capital. Our sartorial
angel, Maxine Ward, tailored our dresses styled in the latest fashion. A
couple of years ago, I gave three dresses made by Maxine to the Liberty County
Museum in Chester, hoping that their display would serve as a tribute to her talent
and the happiness her dresses gave to so many Hi-Line girls.
I visited the museum last year and got a huge kick out of
seeing the manikins being dressed for display. I particularly liked the choice
of wigs. They seemed a little wild for the elegance of the dresses, but times
were a-changin’ in the 60s and maybe long, wild hair was appropriate, although
my friends and I labored to achieve perfect flips or pageboys lacquered into place.
I never got to see what kind of footwear the manikins eventually sported, but I
hope the toes were pointed and the heels high and spiked.
The ruffled pink cotton brocade print dress on the left sported a plunging back.
This was my bridesmaid dress for B. Brown and D. Hess's wedding in 1969. It was originally floor length, but my mom later shortened it to make a cocktail dress version. Note the empire waist style--the height of fashion in the mid-to-late 60s--is featured again in the middle gown, the velvet, fur-trimmed bridesmaid dress for D. Gummer when she married C. Haddock in 1968. The straight-line, unadorned look in vogue in the mid-60s really allowed all three dresses to show off skillful tailoring and beautiful, luxurious fabrics.
Maxine made the satin dress with velvet-trimmed stole on the right for my 1966 Rainbow Girls' installation as Worthy Advisor of Joplin (Montana) Assembly 63. Rainbow installations were public and communal events and Rainbow provided an opportunity for young women up and down the Hi-Line to participate in an activity that transcended our parochial hometown activities.
By the time the 70s arrived, my "every hair in place" coif had given way to naturally curly, "let it all hang down" hair and my beautiful dresses were packed away, replaced by blue jeans. The times, they had indeed changed as much on the Hi-Line as anywhere in the U.S.
