Really cute late 1950s day dress

Our ethos

Our ethos is all about true period vintage clothing of the highest quality; we do not sell any retro reproductions and everything is to the best of our knowledge a genuine item of the period described.  We want you to be thrilled with anything you buy from us. Every item is laundered or dry cleaned if possible and checked carefully, with skilled repair if needed, so that it is presented to you in the best possible condition.   We try to describe accurately, but these are always one-off items and around 40 to 80 years old, so like any antique, they are never going to be in perfect mint condition.

Condition

We use 4 categories for condition, as summarized below:

Excellent – May have been previously worn, sometimes never worn.  Either way, excellent condition for its age with no notable flaws.

Very Good – Very good condition for its age, and totally wearable.  Could have had some repairs by us or previously, but no repairs needed now.  If there are any minor flaws, we’ll have spotted them and commented in the description.

Wearable – Good condition for its age, structurally sound and entirely wearable.  There will be some notable flaws which we’ll have commented in the description, but generally quite minor things.

Needs love – These will have several noted flaws, and might need further repair or alteration.  These dresses are really for those enthusiasts as keen as us to rescue and bring back to life!

Sizing

Sizing, especially for vintage dresses, is always a problem!

For one thing, there is no actual standard of what ‘Size 12’ actually means.  Different companies work to different rules, so size 12 Next is not the same as size 12 Marks & Spencer.  On top of that, the general idea of size 12 in 1965 is not the same as the general idea of size 12 in 2015, so if a vintage dress has a size label, that’s not much help either.

So – this is how things work in The Looking Glass online shop.  The actual dress measurements are specified in the description of the dress.  Please note – these are measurements taken from the dress itself – which won’t be quite the same as the measurements of the body to fit in it!

A good way to check sizing is to compare against a similar dress of your own which you know fits you well.  So, lay your dress out flat and measure across the bust, waist and hips with a tape measure.  (For example, if you measure across the bust with the dress flat on the floor, and the measurement is 18 inches, then double that to give you the total dress bust size of 36 inches).

Please note that some dresses are cut to be flattering to the waist, or to the hips.  And some dresses were dressmaker-made to suit a particular body shape.  Some dresses are styled to be free at the waist or hips, so the dress measurements there might be a lot bigger than your own waist or hip measurement.  Regular vintage buyers are accustomed to occasionally having to make small alterations, and we’ll have noted in the description if there’s scope to let out a hem, for example.  We’ve tried to give you lots of filtering and sorting options to home in on the perfect dress to suit what you’re looking for.

Shipping & Returns Policy

1. For UK buyers, the cost of basic standard postage is included in the price of the dress. If you have any reason to think that the dress you’ve bought is not right for you, please return it within 14 days, and we will give you a full refund of what you have paid us (you will need to pay the return postage cost and also any postage supplement for next day delivery, and of course the dress needs to be returned to us in the same condition as you received it).
2. For international buyers, an international carriage supplement is applied to purchases when you check out. If you return a dress, we will refund the basic price paid (which includes part carriage cost), but will only refund the international carriage supplement as well if we have cocked up in some way.  You are in any event responsible for the cost of returning the dress to us, and international postage is horribly expensive.   We realise that this makes any issues about wanting to return an item more difficult and costly from your point of view, and will do all we can to help answer any questions you may have or details you’d like to check before actually shipping.
3. Our vintage Wedding dresses are a bit of a special case. Our pricing makes them brilliant value for money. Really, far and away best is for you to visit the shop and try them.  If that’s not possible, then we are prepared to ship them to you to try, but if you don’t keep the dress and decide to return it then we must apply a charge for that.  Return conditions for UK and international buyers will apply as above, but we will also deduct 10% of the price paid for the dress from the refund that we pay you.