Yellow cocktail dress designed by Don Loper and worn by Ella Fitzgerald: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This yellow and orange cocktail dress was designed by Don Loper and worn by Ella Fitzgerald. The bodice of the dress is fitted with a sweetheart neckline and spaghetti straps. It is made from a yellow, white, and silver metallic woven floral design. The bodice ends at the hip with a knee-length circle skirt below it. The skirt is made from two (2) layers of marigold colored silk chiffon with an underskirt made from a chartreuse synthetic fabric. The dress closes at the center back with a metal zipper that extends from the top of the bodice to below the hip, with top layer of the chiffon skirt slit and finished with a rolled hem, but not attached to the zipper. There is one (1) metal hook at the top of the zipper that attaches around a yellow thread loop and one (1) hook and thread loop closure at the bottom of the bodice.

The interior of the bodice is lined with cream silk satin. The seams of the bodice are pressed open and pinked. Cream woven tape is sewn to the side of each shaping seam with boning inside the tape, twelve (12) in total. At the center front an additional length of boning encased in orange rayon fabric is attached between the breasts. Sweat guards are whip stitched at both underarms. The guard on the proper left side has a white plastic side and a plain cotton side while the guard on the proper right side has two plain cotton sides. The skirt has no additional lining beneath the chartreuse underskirt.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1950s
• Designed by: Don Loper, American, 1906 - 1972
• Worn by: Ella Fitzgerald, American, 1917 - 1996
• Type: cocktail dresses
• Medium: silk, rayon, and foil cloth, silk chiffon, silk satin, synthetic fiber, and metal fasteners
• Dimensions: H x W: 38 x 21 in. (96.5 x 53.3 cm)
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Clothing and dress
• Topic: Costume
• Topic: Costume design
• Topic: Design
• Topic: Jazz (Music)
• Topic: Singers (Musicians)
• Object number: 2010.20.2
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Estate of Ella Fitzgerald
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The displayed image also has an explicit CC0 designation. The underlying object's rights statement is: No Known Copyright Restrictions Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.