James, Charles, 1906-1978 (designer); Marshall Field & Company (distributor)
1954
Charles James originally designed the Butterfly ball gown for Mrs. William Randolph Hearst Jr., for the price of $1,250. The sculptural design lives up to a comment once made by Spanish couturier Cristbal Balenciaga, "Charles James is not only the...
Halston, 1932-1990 (designer); I. Magnin & Co. (distributor)
circa 1976
Worn by donor, née Lynne Walker (born 1928, married July 19, 1969 to Leo Durocher). Worn with silver sandals, diamond and pearl jewelry, and fur wrap to the Chicago Lyric Opera opening in 1976 and the Big Brothers Charity Ball at the Casino Club,...
Worn by Mrs. Foster Adams, née Courtney Letts and then Mrs. John Borden, while she sat for her portrait which hung in the Borden's drawing room. Donor's note: "Made by Chanel, Paris, 1925, for portrait to be painted in London, by Hilary Strain,...
Worn by Mrs. Henry A. Rumsey. In 1911, the Rumseys commissioned a grand home - modeled after the eighteenth-century Clifford Manor House in Warwickshire, England - on eight acres in Lake Forest, Illinois. The label on this dress states it was made...