A shift dress is a dress in which the cloth falls straight from the shoulders and has darts around the bust. It frequently features a high scoop or boat neck. [3] Shift dresses are often confused with the sheath dress, which is form-fitting and shaped by tucks on the waist area. Shift dresses became popular in western fashion in the 1920s and were revived in the 1960s.
The shift dress gained popularity during the Western flapper movement in the 1920s. [2] Changing social norms meant that young women could choose a style of dress that was easier to move and dance in, and the shift dress marked a departure from previously fashionable corset designs, which exaggerated the bust and waist while restricting movement. [4] [5]
It went out of fashion during wartime, and the post war era, where Western women's fashion was typified by Christian Dior's "New Look", which again featured an exaggerated bust, hips and waist at the expense of comfort. [2] [6]
The shift dress made a comeback in the 1960s, popularised by Hubert de Givenchy's design for Audrey Hepburn's Breakfast at Tiffany's dress, and Lilly Pulitzer's designs for Jacqueline Kennedy. This coincided with the start of second wave feminism which brought in a renewed desire for freedom and versatility. [2]
A corset is a support undergarment worn to hold and train the torso into the desired shape and posture. They are traditionally constructed out of fabric with boning made of whalebone or steel, a stiff panel in the front called a busk which holds the torso rigidly upright, and some form of lacing which allows the garment to be tightened. Corsets were an essential undergarment in European women's fashion from the 17th century to the early 20th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries they were commonly known as "stays" and had a more conical shape. This later evolved into the curvaceous 19th century form which is commonly associated with the corset today. By the beginning of the 20th century, shifting gender roles and the onsets of World War I and II led the corset to be largely discarded by mainstream fashion.
Christian Ernest Dior was a French fashion designer and founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Christian Dior SE. His fashion houses are known all around the world, having gained prominence "on five continents in only a decade."
A skirt is the lower part of a dress or a separate outer garment that covers a person from the waist downwards.
The corset is a supportive undergarment for women, dating, in Europe, back several centuries, evolving as fashion trends have changed and being known, depending on era and geography, as a pair of bodies, stays and corsets. The appearance of the garment represented a change from people wearing clothes to fit their bodies to changing the shape of their bodies to support and fit their fashionable clothing.
Drape suits are a 1930s British variation of the three-piece suit, in which the cut is full and 'drapes'. It is also known as the blade cut or London cut. The design of the athletic aesthetic of the drape suit is attributed to the London tailor Frederick Scholte. The new suit cut was softer and more flexible in construction than the suits of the previous generation; extra fabric in the shoulder and armscye, light padding, a slightly nipped waist, and fuller sleeves tapered at the wrist resulted in a cut with folds, or "drapes," front and back that created the illusion of the broad-shoulders and tight-waist "V" figure of the very fit.
Victorian dress reform was an objective of the Victorian dress reform movement of the middle and late Victorian era, led by various reformers who proposed, designed, and wore clothing considered more practical and comfortable than the fashions of the time.
Lillian Pulitzer Rousseau was an American entrepreneur, fashion designer, and socialite. She founded Lilly Pulitzer, Inc., which produces floral print clothing and other wares.
Empire silhouette, Empire line, Empire waist or just Empire is a style in clothing in which the dress has a fitted bodice ending just below the bust, giving a high-waisted appearance, and a gathered skirt which is long and loosely fitting but skims the body rather than being supported by voluminous petticoats. The outline is especially flattering to pear shapes wishing to disguise the stomach area or emphasize the bust. The shape of the dress also helps to lengthen the body's appearance.
Fashion in the years following World War II is characterized by the resurgence of haute couture after the austerity of the war years. Square shoulders and short skirts were replaced by the soft femininity of Christian Dior's "New Look" silhouette, with its sweeping longer skirts, fitted waist, and rounded shoulders, which in turn gave way to an unfitted, structural look in the later 1950s.
The hourglass figure is one of four traditional female body shapes described by the fashion industry. The other shapes are the rectangular, inverted triangle, and spoon/pear. The hourglass shape is defined by a woman's body measurements- the circumference of the bust, waist and hips. Hourglass body shapes have a wide bust, a narrow waist, and wide hips with a similar measurement to that of the bust. This body shape is named for its resemblance to that of an hourglass where the upper and lower half are wide and roughly equal while the middle is narrow in circumference, making the overall shape wide-narrow-wide. Women who exhibit the hourglass figure have been shown to be more admired, which can put pressure on women whose body shapes are noticeably different to strive to achieve the hourglass figure. This can lead to body dissatisfaction which can cause eating disorders in young women from all over the globe.
The most characteristic North American fashion trend from the 1930s to 1945 was attention at the shoulder, with butterfly sleeves and banjo sleeves, and exaggerated shoulder pads for both men and women by the 1940s. The period also saw the first widespread use of man-made fibers, especially rayon for dresses and viscose for linings and lingerie, and synthetic nylon stockings. The zipper became widely used. These essentially U.S. developments were echoed, in varying degrees, in Britain and Europe. Suntans became fashionable in the early 1930s, along with travel to the resorts along the Mediterranean, in the Bahamas, and on the east coast of Florida where one can acquire a tan, leading to new categories of clothes: white dinner jackets for men and beach pajamas, halter tops, and bare midriffs for women.
Western fashion in the 1920s underwent a modernization. For women, fashion had continued to change away from the extravagant and restrictive styles of the Victorian and Edwardian periods, and towards looser clothing which revealed more of the arms and legs, that had begun at least a decade prior with the rising of hemlines to the ankle and the movement from the S-bend corset to the columnar silhouette of the 1910s. Men also began to wear less formal daily attire and athletic clothing or 'Sportswear' became a part of mainstream fashion for the first time.
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.
History of fashion design refers specifically to the development of the purpose and intention behind garments, shoes, accessories, and their design and construction. The modern industry, based around firms or fashion houses run by individual designers, started in the 19th century with Charles Frederick Worth who, beginning in 1858, was the first designer to have his label sewn into the garments he created.
A dress is a garment traditionally worn by women or girls consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice. It consists of a top piece that covers the torso and hangs down over the legs. A dress can be any one-piece garment containing a skirt of any length, and can be formal or casual.
Underwear, underclothing, or undergarments are items of clothing worn beneath outer clothes, usually in direct contact with the skin, although they may comprise more than a single layer. They serve to keep outer clothing from being soiled or damaged by bodily excretions, to lessen the friction of outerwear against the skin, to shape the body, and to provide concealment or support for parts of it. In cold weather, long underwear is sometimes worn to provide additional warmth. Special types of undergarments have religious significance. Some items of clothing are designed as undergarments, while others, such as T-shirts and certain types of shorts, are appropriate both as underwear and outerwear. If made of suitable material or textile, some underwear can serve as nightwear or swimwear, and some undergarments are intended for sexual attraction or visual appeal.
A man's suit of clothes, in the sense of a lounge or business or office suit, is a set of garments which are crafted from the same cloth. This article discusses the history of the lounge suit, often called a business suit when featuring dark colors and a conservative cut.
Oversized fashion, distinct from plus-sized fashion, consists of clothing and other accessories that are larger than normal and reflect some sort of attitude, message, or trend of the period at hand. While oversized fashion trends from the 1920s to the turn of the century vary from decade to decade, there are many overarching themes that have been expressed during the past one hundred or so years. Masculinity, for example, has played a large role in many of the underlying communications of the fashions, although virility is manifested differently in the clothing depending on the era. Oversized fashion production, furthermore, runs largely parallel with the states of the American and global economies. Modernly, oversized fashion has taken on a new form - primarily in the realm of oversized accessories.
Fashion and clothing in the Philippines refers to the way the people of the Philippine society generally dress up at home, at work, travelling and during special occasions.
Demi-toilet refers to a style of dresses based on a small skirt that can be worn on formal occasions or in daily life. It is different from full dresses, such as evening dresses, dress suits, and wedding dresses due to having a skirt length of five centimetres below the knee. The demi-toilet style is suitable for a simple, casual look. For example, lace could be added to the bottom of the dress when attending banquets or decorated with flowers for an afternoon tea. The dress is lightweight and comfortable, and it is suitable for many ceremonial occasions, including cocktail parties, birthday parties, business meetings, dates, vacations, and weddings. The style used to serve as a symbol of reputation when well-designed dresses and luxurious accessories directly represented one's elevated status and authority.
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