Diana Dew Light-up Dress, ca. 1965
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GUEST:
It belonged to my sister. She passed away in November 2016.
APPRAISER:
I'm so sorry.
GUEST:
And we went down to Houston and cleaned out her house, and I don't even remember where we found it. I'm sure one of her closets. And we brought it home, and that's about all I know about it.
APPRAISER:
Well, it is a most unusual dress from the swinging '60s. The designer of the dress is a woman named Diana Dew, and she worked with Paraphernalia, which is a major retailing store in America in the '60s. They had shops in New York and Philadelphia, and up and down the East Coast. And they were noted for their high-style, contemporary, very current fashion. And Diana had studied fashion and also studied to be an engineer, and she combined these two things by going into the business of making electric clothing. So this dress is the first dress I've ever seen that has come with its own cadmium battery pack. The heart would have lit up. It lasts as long as five hours in a single wearing. And it could be set so you get more light, more flashing, more, more intensity.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
This battery pack was worn on the undergarment that came with the dress, and it would have gone around your waist. A very clever electrician could probably make it functional again.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
And you can see that the heart just slips out of the side if you needed to clean the dress. And the bottom button down here also has its own battery pack, and this button would have spun around in tune to the music and in tune with the heart. It's just an amazing dress, and apparently she achieved a lot of acclaim for it, and went on to design for different rock bands.
GUEST:
Oh!
APPRAISER:
And she would get the clothing that, to light up in time with their music. A retail estimate for something like this, because of its rarity, would be between $2,000 and $2,500 in the current market. It's just a fantastic piece.
APPRAISER:
Well, thank you.
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