When it comes to women’s clothing, every girl likes to own at least one beautiful dress. Dresses are possibly the strongest expression of femininity, and they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. But not many are aware of the huge circle we have turned with regards to dresses in fashion. Historically, dresses have changed and developed over the years but many older trends have resurfaced, especially recently.
In its simplest form, the shift dress was little more than a piece of fabric slung over a woman, functioning solely for warmth and cover. A shift is a very straight dress with no shaping or seam, so it does little to complement the body. Shift dresses did however see resurgence in the 1960s, when dresses were made in the same style but with added design embellishments and more tailoring.
It was during the 1860s that the modern history of dresses could be said to have truly taken off. This was the period in time when the simple clothing of women expanded. Dresses became literally huge! Skirts were supported by hoop skirts and crinolines, stiff supportive underskirts that held the fabric on top of them out around the woman’s legs. This is the sort of skirt you will typically see on Victorian women. “Dresses†at the time were not always one piece of clothing. Instead they would consist of a skirt paired with a bodice. Bodices for day wear had long sleeves and high necklines, whereas the more sophisticated evening bodices had higher necklines and short sleeves.
As time passed, this style of dress continued although it was changed somewhat as more and more of the fabric of the dress was gathered at the back. This gave the skirt more fullness at the rear.
When dresses first began to lose this sturdy shape, a popular style of dress that emerged was the conservative shirtwaist. This style of dress had a bodice fitted like a tailored shirt and a straight skirt that hung down past the knees. Until the beginning of the 1920s, almost all dresses were worn at ankle length. A sudden, rapid change then occurred, and hemlines of dresses and skirts rose from ankle to knee length in a matter of years. Many have paired the rise in women’s hemlines to the rise in women’s rights, as women began to feel their independence and display it with their clothing.
Following the conservative years of the 1950s, hemlines drastically rose even further as the miniskirt came into existence. To the shock and horror of many, women were wearing skirts above the knee that revealed a great deal of their upper legs, and was considered extremely controversial. The 1960s were the years of the miniskirt.
However, in the 1990s long dresses came back into style. Ankle length dresses were popular again, and that trend has remained somewhat consistent. Popular styles at the moment are actually embodied by length. The maxi dress, for example, usually stretches down to the ankles. Skirts and dresses in bohemian chic are not as long but still usually reach a comfortable length around the calves.
In a way we have almost come full circle with regards to dresses in fashion, hemlines having risen all the way up and then back down, although it seems unlikely that the huge skirts of the Victorian era will ever come back into style! For all the latest dress styles visit www.very.co.uk today.