Hi Delia,
I was given this as a gift in the early 2010’s unfortunately that’s all I can tell you as I have scoured the internet, the social platforms, I’ve also contacted other people possibly involved in the making of the dress.
When I say Heatherette I mean the designer brand from the late 90s to late 00s, 1999-2008 I believe, the designers are Traver Rains & Richie Rich. They were discovered & mentored by Patricia Fields.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heatherette ..This is the wiki page.
They were very kitsch &while they did big projects with places like MAC make up and a Hello Kitty collaboration, they were more niche than other designers, they had T-shirts and hoodies and some ready to wear dresses(all of this is even is pretty hard to find) I’ve checked Poshmark, TheRealReal, 1st Dibs etc. and Poshmark has some t-shirts and MAC make up, one ready to wear dress is up on there for 5,000$ but NOT FOR SALE.
The interest in it is pretty wild, especially considering it’s a store bought ready to wear, not one of a kind, it has over 1000 likes and there’s actually a comment from a woman who interned for Heatherette-
“becca_vicious How did you even obtain this? I interned at Heatherette when I was in fashion design school. They were amazing and so talented, brilliant… amazing. You’re very lucky to own this piece. If I somehow come up with the money for this before it sells I will gladly take it off your hands”
I messaged this Becca Vicious a couple days ago I hope to hear back from her, but obviously I may not.
that stuff like this Poshmark dress was purchasable in stores.
My dress from all I can gather is a one off, this was NOT something that would’ve been sold in stores.
It may have had one owner before me or it may have come right from someone involved with Heatherette(we may never know unless someone I’ve contacted gets back to me)
I wish I had more information for you on provenance or really anything. All I can say is I’ve been researching it and have been told/read that it was most likely a runway piece(or a piece made for runway but never used) a sample piece or a one off commission.
I know it’s a bizarre one, probably not what you’re used to, I’m just so desperate for help here.
I think it needs to be insured but for how much I have no idea.
I’ve heard valuations from anywhere between 2,500 to 20,000.
No one has any information and it can’t be found online anywhere so it’s like flying blind!
I hope all of this helps!
Let me know if you need more information and I will try to gather it. Also let me know if you don’t think you can appraise it or authenticate it I’ll understand
Thank you for everything
Kim

Hi Kim,
Thank you for the information - it's tremendously helpful.
Would you mind if I reached out to a few contacts I have in the vintage clothing field - dealers and teachers at FIT, a curator at the Met's Costume Institute among them - one of them may have a bead on who the designers are.
It won't cost additionally for me to reach out but it might add some time to the appraisal process - is that OK?
Thanks to confirm,
~ Delia

Yes of course! Anything that may help, I’ve researched this particular dress but simply can’t find it anywhere. I have found others, but nothing like this.
I did reach out to a woman named Pamela Thompson, she was head designer for Heatherette for some time, she said to send photos and she’d have a look. If I hear from her I will let you know.
If you need anything else from me please don’t hesitate to ask!
Thank you so much
Kim

Hi Kim,
I'm still waiting on responses from my contacts but wanted to check in to see if Pamela Thompson had gotten back to you with any additional information?
Thanks to advise,
Delia