We love it when our customers tell us a little something about an item that they are selling to us or an item that we sold to them. A few weeks ago someone came in to sell us some dresses that had once belonged to a woman who was a spy in World War II. They gave me her name, I googled her, and sure enough, a transmission from 1944 reveals that her code name was “Ivy” and she was given a mission in Sri Lanka. Her dresses included a beautiful silk embroidered cocktail dress with lovely beading on the cap sleeves. We also have a lovely bias cut pinkish-red gown and a fun lavender bubble dress from “Ivy”. One lucky gal is wearing one of her dresses to her prom!

Speaking of prom, just today, a woman came into the store and told us that her daughter had purchased a dress from Petrune a couple of years ago and wore it while posing for Mary Ellen Mark’s Prom Series. She is on the right in the photograph (look fabulous, we must say).

Petrune is honored to have a dress featured in the work of the prolific and incredibly talented Mary Ellen Mark. Her prom series was on exhibition here in Ithaca at the Johnson Museum of Art in 2008; check her website for current exhibtions.

Prom photograph via WSKG’s blog.