I was trying to put a date on a Bestway pattern that I recently received, and came across this. Bestway Patterns are British, and the numbering is odd. In the thirties, they seem to have five digit numbers, but it evolved to a lettering and puncuation system later. The one I have is C. 1,019, so it must be around this era. You also have to take into account the years of wartime fabric rationing in Europe, which were much longer than in the US, and much more strict.
The pattern I have is a shirtwaist dress with pleated bodice and skirt, and falls below mid knee. The hairstyle is similar to this one, so it can’t be thirties, and since fabric rationing was throughout the forties in the UK, I figured it was, at earliest, 1950. That’s how I found this one.
This dress ad is dated March of 1950, from a Liverpool newspaper, and as you can see, is plainly noted as a Christian Dior style. Not only that, it is advertised as the first Christian Dior pattern made available to the public, three years after his first collection was seen on the runway. It is not, however, labelled as such anywhere on the envelope. This is how much you have to dig sometimes to realize that it is a designer pattern. There is a set of McCalls patterns from the sixties that are Biba, but not openly marked as such as well. It’s well worth it to see exactly what you may have. The pattern companies did not always make is simple.
The Vintage Fashion Librarian 