thin mints and samoas, o my.

on the same day i found the vickie vaughn dress a few steps away hung a vintage Girl Scout dress on the rack at beyond retro. it really should have been in the 'oldies' section with a much higher price tag - but hey, i'm not complainin'! i slipped it on and knew i couldn't leave it behind.

i was never a Girl Scout but i was a Brownie and i have vivid memories of the ceremony when we walked across the 'bridge' to get our 'wings' to become Girl Scouts. i also of course remember the cookies and outside s'mores, tho i sadly never went to summer camp. we lived a bit too far out after Brownies, and there were no Girl Scout troops around. i think if the uniforms had been as lovely as this one i would have fought a little bit harder to find a troop!

curious to know when the dress is from, i hit up the official Girl Scout website and archive, where i found a lil' exhibition on the costumes over the years (along with discovering i've got to get back to georgia to see the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace!). i concluded that the dress i've been so lucky to find is the 'Senior and Intermediate Girl Scouts' (wartime), pictured below.

'The availability and construction of Girl Scout merchandise was affected by World War II and general market conditions in the early 1940s. One significant modification was made to the 1939 Intermediate Scout dress: a button-down front replaced the zipper. Windsor ties replaced neckerchiefs in 1943 to conserve fabrics.'

what i wouldn't give to find some of these gems or just as swoon-worthy would be coming across a bolt of the 'official Girl Scout cloth'. what more do you need than in life than this green!?