Originally Posted by
bradsupremes
These gowns were part of their touring wardrobe throughout 1967 with both Florence and Cindy. At this time, they were still buying their gowns off the rack although not so much going to Saks Fifth Avenue, but from boutiques shops in Los Angeles, New York, Miami which featured specialized designers and their collections like Gene Shelly, Tee-ca New York, Galanos for Ameila Gray. Their first designer was LaVetta King who did a few things for them before they were courted by Michael Travis. Travis asked to design for the girls when they appeared on the Tennessee Ernie Ford Special. He told me when he saw what they were going to wear for the special, he knew he had to create something even better for them and that special featured all new gowns created by Travis. From there on out, the girls' new gowns were strictly designer-created especially for them.
There are several sets from late 1966-early 1967 era that for some reason are not heavily photographed. I know of at least four sets of gowns where there are only one or two photos known - one being the infamous '67 Flamingo tuxedos. Like someone said above, there were multiple reasons the girls rarely wore sets - [[e.g. they didn't look as good onstage as thought they would, gowns became uncomfortable, etc.) Mary had a set in her collection that I've yet to see photograph of them wearing. It would be easy to dismiss them as just props, but if you looked inside at the label they read "LaVetta for Miss Diana Ross," "LaVetta for Miss Mary Wilson," and "LaVetta for Miss Cindy Birdsong." They were legit gowns - even if they wore them once.
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