Yellow cocktail dress designed by Don Loper and worn by Ella Fitzgerald

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

This yellow and orange cocktail dress was designed by Don Loper and worn by Ella Fitzgerald. The bodice of the dress is fitted with a sweetheart neckline and spaghetti straps. It is made from a yellow, white, and silver metallic woven floral design. The bodice ends at the hip with a knee-length circle skirt below it. The skirt is made from two (2) layers of marigold colored silk chiffon with an underskirt made from a chartreuse synthetic fabric. The dress closes at the center back with a metal zipper that extends from the top of the bodice to below the hip, with top layer of the chiffon skirt slit and finished with a rolled hem, but not attached to the zipper. There is one (1) metal hook at the top of the zipper that attaches around a yellow thread loop and one (1) hook and thread loop closure at the bottom of the bodice.

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