Are you in need of a party dress 'shake up'?
Do you feel like you always wear the same style of party dress? This look at dress evolution should refill your fashion imagination and leave you feeling inspired to 'shake up' your style and create a whole new look for your next night out. The traditions have been made, they have been broken, and now us ladies have the biggest range of style options available than every before. We struggle to think how fashion designers continue to wow us with new shapes and trends. Read on to see the most important stages in the evolution of the party dress.
1. The birth of the Party Dress
The 1920s saw dresses enter the modern era, and no one was more important in this movement than flappers. Gone were the rules that women had to wear corsets, and that dresses had to finish at our ankles (thank god) and in came the idea of loose fitting ‘party dresses’. Bright colour, sequence and glamour became a big part of a lady’s wardrobe and they've never really left us. A French designer was responsible for making casual and less figure hugging dresses just as big as their tight corset puffball predecessors. No wonder the lady is a fashion saint? Imagine having to wear super tight corsets everyday nowadays...what if we fancied a Dominos pizza, it would be so restricting!
2. The men returned, women celebrated with new fashions
The 40s and 50s were the decades for partying for women, that the hard days without their men were over and they celebrated with amazing fashion. Waist clinching dresses and padded shoulders showed off their feminine figures, whilst bright colours and big bows brought out their fun side. Grease shows the contrast in styles that were worn by girls in this era (remember good-girl Sandy vs bad-girl Sandy). At IKRUSH we love a waist clinching outfit, as they always make us feel that bit more dressed up! Peplum (you know that massive 2013 trend) made an early appearance in the 1940s worn with super tight leggings, where women started dressing that bit sexier.
3. The break of tradition
Women knew how to dress, they knew how to make themselves look good, so now it was time to break some boundaries and dress more 'out there'. Along with the A-line mini skirt, they said hello to the bikini, PVC, pillbox hat and most importantly, the idea of wearing trousers everyday. Tie-dye, bell bottom jeans and 'wow' neon colours broke into the party scene and some of them have only become more and more popular in the 'nightclub' scene to this day.
4. The party look becomes bolder and bolder
As we entered the later decades the music got more 'poptastic', the mini skirts got shorter, the heels grew into platforms, the hair got bigger and the outfits got even brighter if possible. The release of Saturday Night Fever and the creation of Abba made sure us ladies rolled with the trends and with that we became more and more stylish. Glam rock, three piece suits and leotards got bigger and bigger, and the club scene continued to grow throughout this movement. Come to think of it now, could you imagine discos being the same if the women all wore Victorian era corsets and ridiculously wide skirts? It just wouldn't have worked. The music and modern fashion changed. We wonder what came first...(insert chicken or the egg gag)!
5. 'Coz I'm Saved by the Bell...'
Saved by the Bell, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and the Spice Girls - these are the girls we think of when we think of 90s fashion. Matching blazers and skirts, bright patterned dresses and tighter than tight clothes filled the shops - it was hard to dress subtly lets put it that way. Just like in the 80s, the music of the 90s was all about being flirty, feminist and full of life - of course the fashion was going to follow suit.
6. Today - Whats your favourite look?
It's 2013 - express yourself through fashion in any way you like. As you know, it is a mix of the most important stages in party dress evolution that make up the trends today. Sequence dress - yup, waist clinchers - yup, floral trousers - yup, lace - yup, crop tops - yup, bright colours, big hair, platforms...the list goes on and on. Today fashion is such a big part of every girls' life that there is so much more than one specific look that will work on trend. There are lots of different looks, and luckily IKRUSH stocks an option to invest in any of them. Our most important tip of the day - don't throw any clothes away, they will always come back into season eventually.