Thirteen Yards

13 yards.
That is how big the skirt is at the hem.
Twelve gores.
12!
All those folds and seaming and...wow.
"Princess line dress with waistline seam...short sleeves.
Neckline...deeply scooped and edged with band which stands up and away from neck.
Short, formal length.
Extremely wide twelve-gored skirt has insets of fabric folds in each seam...godets set into skirt edge. "


This would make a wonderful wedding dress, unique.

From Advance Imports, #113, early 1950's, A. Battilocchi-Rome.

A. Battilochi seems to also have been called Biki of Milan. I found a mention of her here and an article here:
"Italian dressmaker (1906-1999). She wore a bright green turban when, in 1996, I saw her for the last time. Elvira Leonardi Bouyeure, known as Biki in the world of fashion, was working in her atelier on the ground floor of her house in via Sant'Andrea in Milan, where she lived and worked. I, the reporter, was almost falling asleep; she, the subject of the interview, and 90 years old, was bursting with energy: "Today I'm starting the Japan Collection. Together with my daughter Roberta, I've finished the children's line and I'm sketching the dresses for my very faithful, special, very rich women, who are allergic to today's bric-a-brac, just like my adored Maria would have been." Maria was Maria Callas. Biki taught her how to dress, she was her Pygmalion of manners and the wardrobe."

No really. Green turban, Maria Callas.
Go read the whole write up.

The pattern is for sale at Sew-Retro Vintage Sewing Patterns.