Elegant Survival

Butterick Retro Patterns offers this elegant 1940s-style dress design. Unfortunately, this classic dress style has been copied and very poorly-executed in China by the J. Peterman Company. The latest Peterman versions have freakishly low "waists", necessitating the use of a wide leather belt to cinch their middles inward, thereby covering up these outrageous flaws. It seems that for all their pretentious aping of classic, traditional clothing patterns and retro-bluster, the company, like nearly every other clothing manufacturer, is stuck in the waist-free rut, ruining the classics that they emulate.

Instead of buying Peterman's newest version of his Chinese "1947 Dress," perhaps one could give this Butterick Retro pattern to someone who sews and needs work. This way, you choose the fabric, and your garment will have an actual waist instead of a distorted, contemporary line. And it won't have been produced under a communist regime.~~M-J