First of all, thank you all so much for all your comments and praise on my Charcoal pinup dress! I knew I really liked it, but it’s nice when so many others agree.
One thing that I hadn’t realised in the magazine discussion, nor sewing, nor wearing it out, however, is that this dress pattern is a very close knockoff of the Roland Mouret Macha dress, which was shown in his Spring 11 RTW show!
(Photo from Style.com)
Really, the bodice seaming is all identical, but there are a few differences:
- Burda’s pattern is for wovens, RM’s dress is a stretch woven
- Burda’s has long sleeves, RM’s is sleeveless
- Burda’s has a back V neckline, RM’s has a square back neckline
- Burda’s is princess-seamed in the skirt, RM’s appears to be one panel in the skirt
- Burda’s has a centre back invisible zipper, RM’s has a centre back exposed zipper
The original dress looks to be available in black, tan, and fuschia pink – the latter most recently worn by Heidi Klum on Project Runway this summer (not that I’d know – we don’t get the episodes in the UK until years later!). But frankly, this is all close enough for me, considering mine cost me about £3, and the cheapest I could find his, deeply reduced and “past season”, was £500+!
I do think it’s funny that I’ve inadvertently made a Roland Mouret dress almost exactly 5 years after I made another Roland Mouret dress (that time using Vogue 8280 to knockoff his Galaxy dress!):
I still wear that dress fairly regularly, too!
I don’t normally add photos after the main photoshoot, but the details weren’t very crisp in the earlier photos so we’ve gone back and taken a few more so you can clearly see the seamlines and more of the lining.
Has anyone else got this in their sewing queue now? And does it make a difference to you if it’s based on a designer pattern, or do you generally like a pattern on its own merit?