A backless dress is a style of women's clothing designed to expose the wearer's back. The back may be either partially exposed with a low cut or fully exposed with the use of strings. A backless dress is most commonly worn on formal occasions or as evening wear or as wedding dresses and can be of any length, from a miniskirt-length to floor-length. Other backless styles include backless swimsuits and tops, such as a halter top.
Backless dresses first appeared in the 1920s. [1] In the 1930s, the style became associated with the sun tanning fashions of the time, and the backless dress was a way of showing off a tan, usually without tan lines. The wearer usually had to be slim to be able to pull off the effect. [2] In December 1937, the actress Micheline Patton was controversially filmed from behind while wearing a backless dress in the final episode of the early BBC fashion documentary Clothes-Line . [3] The illusion of nudity led to outraged viewers writing in to complain, and Pearl Binder, who co-presented the show, quipped, "Grandmamma looks back but Micheline has no back to be seen." [3]
A backless dress can be held up in a number of ways. The most common is by a single piece of cloth or strap which passes behind the wearer's neck, halterneck-style. [4] The neck strap can itself be covered by the wearer's hair, leaving the impression from behind that nothing is holding the dress up. Alternatively, the dress may be held up by short sleeves or by a single or two spaghetti straps, which hold the dress up at the shoulders. A stick-on dress is another way that a dress can be held up. [5]
The backless style is also found in the choli, the blouse worn by Indian women along with saris and ghagras.
The back is either "partially exposed" with a low cut or "fully exposed" by use of strings. [6] The backless styles were created mainly due to the influence of Western fashion. [7] It was made popular by Madhuri Dixit when she wore it and appeared in the Dhak Dhak Karne Laga song. [8] "The drape and the blouse make the saree a sexy ensemble, and my blouses are always low back because I love the peep of the skin against so much fabric", as stated by Indian actress Vidya Balan. [9]
Breast support may be an issue for many women when wearing a backless dress, but nevertheless most women choosing this style of top prefer to go braless. Bra designs are available that offer breast support with backless dresses. Some bra designs use convertible styles, adhesive bras, underwire and strapless bras.
A sari is a women's garment from the Indian subcontinent. It consists of an un-stitched stretch of woven fabric arranged over the body as a robe, with one end attached to the waist, while the other end rests over one shoulder as a stole, sometimes baring a part of the midriff. It may vary from 4.1 to 8.2 metres in length, and 60 to 120 centimetres in breadth, and is a form of ethnic wear in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. There are various names and styles of sari manufacture and draping, the most common being the Nivi style. The sari is worn with a fitted bodice also called a choli and a petticoat called ghagra, parkar, or ul-pavadai. It remains fashionable in the Indian subcontinent today.
Clothing in India varies with the different ethnicities, geography, climate, and cultural traditions of the people of each region of India. Historically, clothing has evolved from simple garments like kaupina, langota, achkan, lungi, sari, to perform rituals and dances. In urban areas, western clothing is common and uniformly worn by people of all social levels. India also has a great diversity in terms of weaves, fibers, colors, and the material of clothing. Sometimes, color codes are followed in clothing based on the religion and ritual concerned. The clothing in India also encompasses a wide variety of Indian embroidery, prints, handwork, embellishments, and styles of wearing clothes. A wide mix of Indian traditional clothing and western styles can be seen in India.
Indo-Western clothing is the fusion of Western and South Asian fashion.
Cleavage is the narrow depression or hollow between the breasts of a woman. The superior portion of cleavage may be accentuated by clothing such as a low-cut neckline that exposes the division, and often the term is used to describe the low neckline itself, instead of the term décolletage. Joseph Breen, head of the U.S. film industry's Production Code Administration, coined the term in its current meaning when evaluating the 1943 film The Outlaw, starring Jane Russell. The term was explained in Time magazine on August 5, 1946. It is most commonly used in the parlance of Western female fashion to refer to necklines that reveal or emphasize décolletage.
Halterneck is a style of women's clothing strap that runs from the front of the garment around the back of the neck, generally leaving the upper back uncovered. The name comes from livestock halters. The word "halter" derives from the Germanic words meaning "that by which anything is held". Halter is part of the German word for bra, Büstenhalter.
A choli is a blouse or a bodice-like upper garment that is commonly cut short leaving the midriff bare, it is worn along with a sari in the Indian subcontinent. In northern Gujarat is also known as polku. The choli is also part of the ghagra choli costume in the Indian subcontinent.
The history of bras is closely tied to the social status of women, the evolution of fashion, and shifting views of the female body over time.
A back closure is a means for fastening a garment at the rear, such as with a zipper, hooks-and-eyes or buttons. Back closures were once common on Western female clothing, but have recently become less so, especially on female casual and business attire. They continue, however, to be widely used in underwear, formal wear and specialized clothing. Back closures are also common in garments for infants and toddlers.
A bra, short for brassiere or brassière, is a form-fitting underwear that is primarily used to support and cover a woman's breasts. A typical bra consists of a chest band that wraps around the torso, supporting two breast cups that are held in place by shoulder straps. A bra usually fastens in the back, using a hook and eye fastener, although bras are available in a large range of styles and sizes, including front-fastening and backless designs. Some bras are designed for specific functions, such as nursing bras to facilitate breastfeeding or sports bras to minimize discomfort during exercise.
A langa voni is a traditional dress worn in South India by girls between puberty and marriage. It is also known as the two-piece sari or half sari. Girls younger than this may wear it on special occasions.
Ghagra choli is a type of ethnic clothing for women from the India, notably in the Indian states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir. In Punjab, the lehenga is traditionally worn with a kurti. It is a combination of the ‘’ghagra or lehenga and the choli (blouse). In contemporary and modern usage lehenga choli is the widely used term by fashion designers, trend setters, and boutiques in India, since ghagra is synonymous with the half-slip (petticoat) worn as an undergarment below the sari.
The Kaashtha sari is a Koli style of sari draping very similar to the way the Maharashtrian dhoti is worn. The word Kaashtha refers to the sari being tucked at the back. Since this sari is usually worn by using a single nine yard cloth, it is also referred to as Nauvari, which means Nine Yards. Sakachcha sari is another term commonly used to refer to this style of sari. It is referred to as Akanda Vastra, which means it doesn't need any other attire to support it. In fact, this attire holds utmost importance as women across different walks of life have worn it. It is not just worn at religious and cultural events, but women have fought wars in the past and still work in farmlands wearing this.
Pakistani clothing refers to the ethnic clothing that is typically worn by people in the country of Pakistan and by Pakistanis. Pakistani clothes express the culture of Pakistan, the demographics of Pakistan, and cultures from Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Kashmir regions of the country. The clothing in each region and culture of Pakistan reflect weather conditions, way of living, the textiles and embroidery used and its distinctive style which gives it a unique identity among all cultures.
Low-rise is a style of clothing designed to sit low on, or below, the hips. The style can also be called lowcut, hipster, or hip-hugger, and can apply to garments worn by males or females. The term can be applied to all garments that cover the wearer's crotch area, including trousers, jeans, shorts, skirts, panties, briefs, bikinis, pantyhose, and tights.
A lehenga-style sari is a modern garment introduced in India that blends elements of the traditional sari and lehenga choli. A lehenga-style sari is normally 4.5 metres to 5.5 metres long. To wear one, unlike a sari, one does not have to form pleats but may simply tuck and drape.
Sindhi clothing are a part of the Sindhi culture. Sindhi women and men wear the Shalwar Qameez or the Kurta with Pyjama. Women also wear Sari or ghagra. However, before the adoption of the Shalwar kameez, kurta, the Sari as well as other articles of clothing, Sindhis had their own traditional costumes.
History of clothing in the Indian subcontinent can be traced to the Indus Valley civilization or earlier. Indians have mainly worn clothing made up of locally grown cotton. India was one of the first places where cotton was cultivated and used even as early as 2500 BCE during the Harappan era. The remnants of the ancient Indian clothing can be found in the figurines discovered from the sites near the Indus Valley civilisation, the rock-cut sculptures, the cave paintings, and human art forms found in temples and monuments. These scriptures view the figures of human wearing clothes which can be wrapped around the body. Taking the instances of the sari to that of turban and the dhoti, the traditional Indian wears were mostly tied around the body in various ways.
A dudou is a traditional Chinese article of clothing that covers the front of the torso, originally worn as an undershirt with medicinal properties. With the opening of China, it is sometimes encountered in Western and modern Chinese fashion as a sleeveless shirt and backless halter-top blouse.
Thousands of years of history provide evidence of the differing fashions, cultural norms, and artistic depictions regarding cleavage and clothes that accentuate or flaunt cleavage. From the absolute modesty of the 16th century, to the Merveilleuses Directoire dresses with their transparency, the décolleté has followed the times and is much more than a simple fashion effect.
| Headwear | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neckwear | |||||||||
| Tops | |||||||||
| Trousers | |||||||||
| Suits and uniforms | |||||||||
| Dresses and gowns |
| ||||||||
| Skirts | |||||||||
| Underwear and lingerie |
| ||||||||
| Coats and outerwear |
| ||||||||
| Nightwear | |||||||||
| Swimwear | |||||||||
| Footwear | |||||||||
| Legwear | |||||||||
| Accessories | |||||||||
| Dress codes |
| ||||||||
| Related | |||||||||
