I proofread court depositions.  Attorneys and deponents frequently make up their own series of words to explain things.  Court reporting school teaches certain things for punctuation, yet I can't find the rule to verify it.  My first example is correct:  sixteenth-century-type dress, meaning to dress in the style of what they wore in the sixteenth century.  This second example is where I have difficulty:  sixteenth century type of dress  OR  sixteenth-century type of dress?  Logic would dictate that sixteeth-century modifies "type," but court reporting schools teach that when "of" follows, there is no hyphen.  Where is a rule to support this one way or the other.  I'm baffled.

 

Sue