I have loved this dress ever since I found a copy of the full-color photograph in Life Magazine years ago. I am sure it has sat in the back of my head ever since, silently feeding my love for the 1950s silhouette and serving as part of the inspiration for my Girls' Classic 1950s Shirt Dress pattern and my Ladies' Classic 1950s Wardrobe pattern. I never attempted to reproduce it for myself, but, once I settled on Paris as one of the stops on my 2019 Historical Fashion tour, I knew it had to be: I simply had to make a recreation of Dior's Palais de Glace dress to wear while in Paris!

It is easy to see the beginnings of New Look styling in this 1948 pattern by McCall's. The skirts are fuller, and the focus is on the nipped waist. This is especially noticeable on the dress with the diagonal stripes emphasizing the hourglass shape. This is such a simple pattern, but the results are WOW!