Gigliola Curiel, 1956

I've told you a little bit about Italian couture designer Gigliola Curiel in the past.  This dress was featured in a Bergdorf Goodman ad from spring 1956 announcing the arrival of Curiel's first collection for the store.

"Here in all their beautiful glory are the polished, elegant, very cosmopolitan clothes which this talented Italian designer has created for us alone in the whole United States.  Done in the finest tradition of the Italian couture, in magnificent imported fabrics and executed with bold, dramatic strokes, these clothes are not for the timid or unsure, but for the worldly and the very wise.  Shown, Curiel's white silk organdy dance dress bordered and embroidered with clusters of gold French beads centered with rhinestones, its own floating white silk organdy stole.  $975."

$975 in 1956.  That's $8,062 in today's dollar.  I would assume that Bergdorf's only sold a handful of this dress, if that many.  Chances of finding it today, are slim to none, but isn't it beautiful?