This outfit has the loose fit typical of the 1970s and 1980s but brought up to date with enormous shoulder pads. The curving seams of the piecework are sewn with great skill.

It was made by designer Lore Maria Wiener for Jeannie (Mrs. Gordon) Southam, local socialite and first female member of the Board of Directors of the MacMillan Bloedel Company.

Mme. Wiener was born in Germany and trained in Austria. She and her family fled Nazism in 1940 and went to Shanghai. In 1949, they were forced to move again after the communist takeover of China. They came to Vancouver, where she became one of the city’s leading fashion designers.