Block-printed rayon dress in St Anthony design. Full-skirted, grey-green, rayon dress with fitted bodice, short sleeves, sweetheart neckline and self-covered buttoned front opening to waist with 5 buttons.

There is no manufacturer’s label, however, it looks professionally manufactured/hand finished; bears manufacturer’s size label 38. It is likely that this dress was made from fabric printed at The Cornubia Works, Hayle by Cresta Silks, who reprinted Alec Walker’s Cryséde designs after the Second World War.
Length 1190mm, width 530mm.

Cresta was set up by Tom Heron in Hertfordshire in 1929. Heron, a fellow Yorkshireman and friend of Alec Walker, had joined Cryséde in 1925 when it was looking to expand to its larger site in St Ives. He bought out Cryséde in 1946, which had begun to fail in 1939. Using the original wooden blocks, the fabric was sent to the Cresta factory in Hertfordshire to be made into garments. In 1952, the Hayle operation closed as cheaper screen printing replaced hand printing methods. Cresta Silks was sold to Debenhams.