Few weeks back I wrote about the fabulous plus size model Tess Munsterand received a flurry of email from readers interested in finding out about the newest resources for plus size women. I’m sure that the ‘notsogood’ news is that quite a few great new ‘plus size’ designer lines can be very pricey. I played a big role and wanted to be certain I always looked the part. Carmencita Whonder was educated at Howard and Johns Hopkins and is experienced in diverse fields including financial services, international affairs, philanthropy, and politics. She’s also the millions of women who wear larger than a size 14 who couldn’t find clothing that suited her lifestyle and size. Known I found nothing beyond a size 12 that was truly great or even good to if they have been intended or used to fit that purpose, from Yves Saint Laurent’s ‘mid60”s ‘Mondrian’ dress to the slinky slip dresses worn by cosmo sipping Carrie Bradshaw in the late 90’s, designers never stopped producing socalled cocktail dresses. For true cocktail aficionados, the period between the 1970s and 1990s is seen mostly as a low point in the history of drink mixing, and the popularity of hosting semi formal cocktail affairs slowly disappeared with the cocktail shakers. Enter the 2000s, perceived by many to be the renaissance of cocktail culture. For the most part, the days ofcocktail etiquette, gether with the semiformal dressing standards, are long gone. With that said, this modern golden age has more to do with hip bars, creative bartenders and innovative concoctions than parties and dressing. Today, a cocktail party most possibly will be a comeasyouare affair, and cocktail dresses are found only at weddings, holiday parties and exclusive fashion and entertainment industry events.
What, exactly, is a cocktail dress, the term often evokes smoky lounges or elegant soirées.
One problem remains consistent, from its inception. Color, fabric or style.
By standard definition, a cocktail dress is a short dress that is suitable for formal occasions. As actress Jean Arthur explains in the 1936 film The ExMrs. Bradford, it’s something to spill cocktails on. It is cocktail dresses circa 1958 and Photo. Esta Nesbitt Fashion Illustrations,The New School Archives and Special Collections, The New School, New York City. By the way, the decade is often marked as the era of the flapper, not nearly any woman was bold enough to wear short skirts and bob her hair throughout the 1920s. Of course as pointed out by fashion historian Elyssa Schram Da Cruz shoes and gloves was designated to accompany her, therefore this new Drinking type Woman was seen at private cocktail soirées and lounges. Actually, while dancing the Charleston and smoking cigarettes with a cocktail in hand, equipped with greater amounts of independence, young women rebelled against the older generations by intending to clubs.
For years, the main selling point of cocktail ensembles was practicality.Often times, the main difference between a stylish day ensemble and cocktail outfit was a change in accessories, hence the popularity of the cocktail hat and identical coordinating pieces.
While making the cocktail dress a necessary factor in a woman’stransition between day and night, like the modern happy hour, the cocktail hour usually ok place between 6and 8eight.
Whenever allowing women to look ‘nottoo’ sophisticated throughout the day and nottoo casual in the early evening, because of that, cocktail attire became synonymous with flexibility and functionality. Eventually, the term was used more frequently in the 1930s, the first direct mention of a cocktail dress in Vogue was in the May 15. Referencing a Patou dress in mannish tweed. You see, while dubbing the cocktail dress avowedly modern, a year later, the October 1931 issue of Harper’s Bazaar sang the praises of the relatively new garment type.
Article from 1930 in The New York City Times explains that the cocktail dress was ‘betterknown’ by heaps of different names like the late afternoon frock, that was definitely more closely associated with the evening mode than to the afternoon mode as it used to be before acute romanticism set in.
There was still a lot of drinking going on, that made the practicality of the cocktail dress even more important, albeit one should assume that the economic hardships will put a damper on cocktail culture.
So American stock market crash of 1929 and the preceding economic depression completely altered the carefree nature of theflapper era, and fashions echoed the social change. Cocktail dresses followed identical slim, bias cut, ankle length styles that dominated female fashion of the 1930s and replaced the cylindrical, short styles that fit the mood of the flappers. There is some more information about it on this website. Cheers to the cocktail dress!
It’s kept women looking good while sipping booze for almost a century, and will continue to do so for decades to come.
It’s now the most formal items in the closets of many modern women, not limited to any sort of time or social function, nonetheless the cocktail dress was originally intended to give women an informal and practical dressing option.
Whenever considering this, the cocktail dress is an outdated concept, that doesn’t mean it’s off limits. Nonetheless, women’s clothing in the Western world at this time was highly influenced by Christian Dior’s New Look collection of 1947, that made cinched waists and full skirts the ubiquitous silhouette for formal dressing, with the form hugging sheath dresses popularized in films by the likes of Marilyn Monroe. With that said, this terminology was also a sly marketing technique used to attract boozeloving American customers who enjoyed hosting and dressing for cocktail hours. Basically, in his 1957 autobiographyChristian Dior and I, the famed French designer stated the cocktail was the symbol par excellence of the American way of life, after all. While leading to a rise in the use and concept of cocktail dressing by the end of the 1940s, dior famously dubbed one of his early evening frocks a cocktail dress.
When the war was over, a surge in the popularity of athome cocktail parties gave the cocktail dress a whole new life, the devastating effects of World War I had an obvious effect on cocktail dressing.
The short and stylish cocktail dress was the one true requirement for any of these ‘get togethers’, the etiquette could differ by year and social group.
1950s are perceived by many to be the height or age of the cocktail dress. On p of that, french couturiers continued to release cocktailspecific dresses in a vast selection of colors and styles, and American women were quick to purchase cheaper copies made on Seventh Avenue to have their own little piece of highend cocktail culture. Cocktail hour and cocktail parties helped to define the domesticated rolls of women as wives, matrons and hostesses as these kinds of gatherings types had become an integral part of social life between the 1950s and 1960s.