Clara's Sheath Dress

Clara’s knee-length sheath dress is from about 1970. This straight-down style of dress was a popular fashion design in the late 60s and early 70s. This was a very casual look for Clara, but the sheath dress also showed up as ankle-length evening wear.

Clara has two pairs of shoes to wear with her dress today. By 1970, go-go boots were worn by many. The knee-high boots had gained in popularity as actresses and singers wore them in the late 1960s. They were made of leather or synthetics, such as vinyl, and usually had chunky heels. Bright colors were all the rage, but the most popular color for go-go boots was white.

Clara's Mary Janes were also a popular shoe style for girls. Hers are a little unique since they have thick soles and wedge heels. It was during the 70s that platform shoes became the latest trend for footwear. Soles for shoes topped four inches, bringing brisk business to ankle doctors as people tripped more frequently while wearing platform shoes. Fortunately, Clara is pretty sensible, and her shoes have reasonably thick platform soles and wedge heels. She would wear either knee-high socks or tights with the Mary Janes.

The original sheath dress is a coral pink dress with white polka dots and a matching coral tie. The original boots would not match the dress at all, since they are an orange dyed leather. The Mary Janes are black patent leather with white stitching.

Be creative, especially since the original colors would have clashed terribly. Bright abstract prints and huge flowers were popular on dresses. Many outfits stayed with earth tones – especially red, orange, and tan – but bright colors were just as popular. Here are some of the colors found in fashion from about 1970:

To print Clara's Sheath Dress, use this PDF file:
Clara's Dress 7 (591k)

Clara is a free, printable paper doll. Clara will be available on this blog as long as I continue to post new fashion pages for her. You can read the introduction for the Clara paper doll here.

I suggest you print Clara on cardstock, so she will be more durable. To print the Clara paper doll, use this PDF file:
The Clara Paper Doll (718k)