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How much do I love my Barnard students?

One of my favorite students from last term is enrolled in my Spring course, too: preparatory to the first paper, she wrote to tell me that she had two topics in mind, both of which she thought she could argue successfully ... but, which one would I have more fun reading?

Today, one of her peers from last term wrote to me to query her grade: not, it must be noted, because she was dissatisfied with it, but because she was concerned that I'd made a clerical error in her favor (as it happens, I thought her in-class contributions were exemplary, and it tipped her up to the next percentile). 

Such lovely considerate girls, they are ....

Random vintage question of the day

Rando, rando, rando: what do you call those little clippy things gentlemen wore to make their vests fit right in the back, back in the day?

See, in Paris, I found this awesome wine-red hand-sewn wool dress.  It has a v-neck and a line of glowing coal-red buttons marching diagonally across the bust: it has a fetching line of three sharp pleats extending from the point where the buttons end; it even has that Holy Grail of women's clothing, a pocket.

But it also has the silhouette of its period, which I would peg as the early 70s commenting on the early 40s, which is to say, no waist.  And I really can't be having with that.  I don't want to alter it, as there are just so many ways in which that could go wrong, and I think it looks weird with a belt, given the long straight diagonal lines of it, so ... help?  A clip would make it fall just right, I think.

Dapper clothes-horse friends, anybody know what I'm talking about, and, better yet, where to find them?