A Dorothy Lamour Dress

My neighbour told me she had purchased a Dorothy Lamour type dress, although when she described the vintage as late 80’s I thought  that Dorothy was long gone from this earth by then. I was wrong. Wikipedia says : Dorothy Lamour (December 10, 1914 – September 22, 1996) was an American film actress. She is best-remembered for appearing in the “Road to” movies, a series of successful comedies co-starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

The dress in question is a light weight, floral print wrap around dress with an asymmetrical hemline. It was quite stylish at another time and looked pretty good for today, especially because she was going with my wife and another friend to Stratford, ON to see Shakespeare, and have lunch and make a day of it. She felt it was the perfect dress for the occasion and for the beautiful spring weather.

After she put it on she looked in the mirror and surely something was wrong. The hemline looked a bit wonky and she could not determine immediately what was wrong. She stared at herself and suddenly, as the blood drained from her face, she realized the bottom of the dress, hanging precariously near the office equipment in their home, had gone through the paper shredder!
Her husband, hereafter referred to as the culprit, addressed the situation and agreed to recut the hem with a pair of scissors retrieved from the garage where they did not belong but did reside. The culprit in question is not a straight cutter, or so it seems, but she was able to wear the dress, albeit a bit skewed to one side, to the play.

The actors showed her their talents and she showed them her legs and maybe her underwear, assuming she was wearing any, but that was not my place to ask about.

My wife had agreed to work on the dress and see if she can hem it and make it better, maybe even bring it into the 90’s.

The culprit has agreed to put, or build a baffle type devise for his shredder so that only paper can go through, or barring that, he will learn to sew.