Cinderella story, one in an anthology of fairy tales. This version has Cinderella going to three balls. The book is beautifully illustrated but also very descriptive of the gowns-of the fabrics and decorations-e.g.”yellow silk” or “yellow taffeta.” Published prior to 1960.
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
There’s a Cinderella-like fairy tale that has appeared in multiple anthologies called Donkeyskin or Princess Donkeyskin (and, I think, a few other names).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkeyskin
A princess tries to avoid an unwanted marriage by asking for three amazing dresses in the hopes that they will be impossible to make. It’s typically something like a dress like the sun (the yellow one I think you remember), a dress like the moon, and one with all the colors of the sky (or I think I saw one once where it was a dress like the stars). Her last request is a strange fur coat, usually made of a donkey skin. But, she actually does get the coat and dresses that match all the requests, so she takes them all and runs away to avoid the marriage, dressing herself in the coat as a disguise. She finds work for herself and attends balls in a neighboring kingdom wearing each of her amazing dresses, catching the attention of the prince there.
This is not striking any notes. I’m pretty sure this was a Cinderella story. I wish I could remember the other fairy stories in the anthology, but I generally ignored them and went right to the Cinderella story.
This was dramatised as “Sapsorrow” on the Jim Henson Storyteller series (with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders as the sisters – brilliant!). Here is the summary of the story, which is called “Allerlierauh”. While it seems very close to Cinderella, and may have been called that in an anthology, it’s not quite there. But that might help you find the anthology it was in.
I think this might be a beautiful version of Cinderella illustrated by the Danish artist Svend Otto S. In this version, Cinderella has three different dresses over three different days.
Try and google “Svend Otto S” and Cinderella and see if this is what you remember. It has been published both as a standalone and in anthologies, I think.