Neva Livingston almost missed seeing the vintage dress.
She had cut school the morning of Friday, Nov. 7, for a special shopping excursion with Kristin Iovino, her longtime ballet teacher.
Neva has A’s in all her classes at Bloomington High School South and will graduate a trimester early in February. Missing class isn’t a regular thing for this responsible student.
That Friday was Day 1 of the Monroe County History Center Garage Sale. The grand event is held inside a Cook Medical warehouse twice a year, in June and November.
Neva, who loves all things vintage and dresses as if she was living in the 1960s, had never been to the step-back-in-time sale that features furniture, art, collectibles, jewelry and clothing from days gone by.
“My dance teacher said, ‘I know you like vintage, so on Friday morning do you want to skip school and go with me to the history center garage sale?’ I said I sure would.”
They arrived 15 minutes before the doors opened at 9. “There was already a line of people trailing out into the parking lot,” Neva said. “I thought it was crazy that so many people would get up so early and be out there in line.”
Once she got in the door, Neva realized what drew so many to the sale. Before her: 33,000 square feet of space displaying donated items ranging from paperback novels to furs.
She was quickly drawn to the vintage clothing shop volunteers created near the front of the warehouse, to the left and just past the jewelry, near the handbags. The area was crowded with shoppers and Neva was blocked from a rack of hanging garments, mostly women’s coats. She wandered to the next area, then the next.
An hour or so later, she was headed to the checkout when she decided to take one more look at the clothing. There on the rack she had bypassed earlier, between jackets and coats, hung a handmade floor-length dress with a matching shawl.
The sky-blue empire-waist dress was draped in dry-cleaner’s plastic. It looked to be about her size.
A hand-written note dated April 7, 2025, was attached.
“To whomever own this dress next,” it began. “I made it in 1964 for my high school prom. I just had it cleaned at Kinser Cleaners in Bloomington, IN. The shawl is slightly a different color from aging (61 years!) I suggest having it cleaned as well. Then they would match in color better.”
Neva was taken with the dress and its history.
“I pulled out the hanger, and the dress was such a beautiful color and floor length, which I love.” A garage sale volunteer led her to a break room and stood outside the door so Neva could try on the dress, which had a $20 price tag.
She stepped out to show Iovino and the woman guarding the door. “They really loved it. I could hear them telling everyone the story.”
Neva said it was as if the dress was made for her.
“I don’t think I have ever had anything fit as perfectly well as this dress. It zips up just right and fits like a glove. It doesn’t need hemming.”
She’s going to have the shawl cleaned and will wear the dress to her senior prom. “I’m so extremely grateful about finding it.”
The note from the woman who sewed the dress for a special occasion six decades ago was a surprise that caused the 17-year-old to pause.
“It was the sweetest thing. Now, this dress has a story and a person behind it. That makes me love it all the more.”
Neva wants to find the woman, let her know the dress she kept all those years is hanging under plastic in her closet. “Í’d love to meet her.”
She hopes the dressmaker has some old pictures from that long-ago prom.
Neva said she’ll take a photo of herself in the dress come prom night “and we can hold them up side by side.”
Clues about the identity of the woman who made the dress can be sent to llane@heraldt.com.
Contact H-T reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com or 812-318-5967.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: A homemade prom dress from 1964, a special note and a teen’s search for link to past
Reporting by Laura Lane, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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