Sally Milgrim Dress in Shadowland Magazine

This editorial photograph was featured in a July 1921 issue of Shadowland magazine. The dress in the photograph is a black and white checkered afternoon gown with ribbon trimming by Sally Milgrim. Milgrim got her start in fashion by joining her husband’s suit-making business as a dressmaker in the 1910s. By the 1920s, her business proved to be so successful that she began creating custom designs for entertainers like Ethel Merman, Pearl White, and Mary Pickford. Milgrim’s line expanded to include eveningwear as well as ready-to-wear gowns and accessories. Milgrim’s attention to detail was apparent in her creations – she often incorporated embroidery, cross-stitch, ruffles, pleats, and embedded crystals. A high point in Milgrim’s career was when she was approached to design Eleanor Roosevelt’s inaugural gown for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 inauguration.