Dress

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres depicts the Countess d'Haussonville, wearing a dress

A dress (also known as a frock or a gown) is a garment consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice (or a matching bodice giving the effect of a one-piece garment).[1] 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. Dresses can be formal or informal. In many cultures, dresses are more often worn by women and girls.

The hemlines of dresses vary depending on the whims of fashion and the modesty or personal taste of the wearer.[2]

History

Before the Victorian period, the word "dress" usually referred to a general overall mode of attire for either men or women, as reflected today in such phrases "evening dress", "morning dress", "travelling dress", "full dress", and so on, rather than to any specific garment. At that time, the most-often used English word for a woman's skirted garment was gown. By the early 20th century, both "gown" and "frock" were essentially synonymous with "dress", although gown was more often used for a formal, heavy or full-length garment, and frock or dress for a lightweight, shorter, or informal one. Only in the last few decades has "gown" lost its general meaning of a woman's garment in the United States in favor of "dress".

In the ancient world, for example Ancient Greece and Rome, both men and women wore a similar dress-like garment termed generically a tunic. From this developed the dress worn by women and male clothing such as cassocks and Fustanella worn by priests and soldiers respectively. An ancient Greek tunic, appearing on the Charioteer of Delphi inspired an early twentieth gown designer, Mariano Fortuny to create the Delphos gown in 1907.

19th century

Dresses increased dramatically to the hoopskirt and crinoline-supported styles of the 1860s, then fullness was draped and drawn to the back. Dresses had a "day" bodice with a high neckline and long sleeves, and an "evening" bodice with a low neckline (decollete) and very short sleeves.

Throughout this period, the length of fashionable dresses varied only slightly, between ankle-length and floor-sweeping.[2]

20th and 21st centuries

A typical pre-prom gathering, with girls in dresses, and boys in tuxedos

Beginning around 1915, hemlines for daytime dresses left the floor for good. For the next fifty years fashionable dresses became short (1920s), then long (1930s), then shorter (the War Years with their restrictions on fabric), then long (the "New Look").

Since the 1970s, no one dress type or length has dominated fashion for long, with short and ankle-length styles often appearing side-by-side in fashion magazines and catalogs.[3]

Use

In most varieties of formal dress codes in Western cultures, a dress of an appropriate style is mandatory for women. They are also very popular for special occasions such as proms or weddings.[4] For such occasions they, together with blouse and skirt, remain the de facto standard attire for many girls and women.

Lengths

See also

References

  1. ↑ Condra, Jill. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History: 1801 to the present. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 59. ISBN 9780313336652.
  2. 1 2 Davis, Michael (2007). Art of dress designing (1st ed.). Delhi: Global Media. ISBN 81-904575-7-8.
  3. ↑ changing hemlines
  4. ↑ Pundir, Nirupama (2007). Fashion technology : today and tomorrow. New Delhi: Mittal Publications. ISBN 81-8324-203-0.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 The Vogue Sewing Book. Vogue Patterns. 1975. p. 337.
  6. ↑ Cumming, Valerie; Cunnington, C.W.; Cunnington, P.E. (2010). The dictionary of fashion history (Rev., updated and supplemented [ed.]. ed.). Oxford: Berg. p. 130. ISBN 9780857851437.
  7. ↑ Delamore, Philip. "Mini and Midi". The Wedding Dress: A Visual Sourcebook of Over 200 of the Most Beautiful Gowns Ever Made. Pavilion Books. p. 122. ISBN 9781862057647.
  8. ↑ Cumming, Valerie; Cunnington, C. W.; Cunnington, P. E. The Dictionary of Fashion History. Berg. ISBN 9781847887382.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dresses.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Minidresses.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.