Richard Tam Silk Brocade Haute couture dress.
Richard Tam 1961 silk brocade long sleeve evening dress. Dress is silk lined and has pockets and a front pleat. This fabric is absolutely stunning, it shimmers in both natural and artificial lighting. This piece should probably be in a museum.
I bought this years and years ago from the son of the original owner who had passed away. He said there had been a matching coat but he did not know it’s whereabouts. His mother had been a socialite in the Houston area.
Richard Tam was a graduate of Stanford, and won fame in his 20s by founding and overseeing his own West Coast couture house for seven years, making clothing in luxurious crepes, silks and chiffons for women like Ethel Kennedy, Dinah Shore, Polly Bergen, Lena Horne and Dina Merrill. He then moved to Greece to study architecture and interior design, returning to his native San Francisco as an interior designer.