The body-hugging, tight-fitting dress that wraps around you, from the torso to the thighs, is almost a modern wardrobe staple for many. The bodycon dress traditionally means a “body-conscious” garment, shortened to “BODY-CON”. And since the next-to-skin-like silhouette sits and frames your body’s contour, they are also known as the “body contouring” dress.
To simply put, this dress would make you “conscious” about your body by accentuating its shape. And to be able to do that, women would want to be “in shape”, lest they don’t “fit into the silhouette”!
But there is a serious problem with this conventional definition of the bodycon dress. To understand why we say so, let’s dive a little deeper into the history of this trend-setting fashion concept.
Evolution of the bodycon dress
The fashion trend has its roots in the sheath dress, which was a rage in the 1940s. They came in both slinky and a little looser fits, made in heavier fabrics like wool, etc.
Most celebrities sported these body-hugging dresses. The idea was to accentuate the female body shape, making it most coveted for every woman out there. The idea perhaps was a response to the oddity of the 20s and 30s fashion, with drop-waist, boxy silhouettes.
The trend seeped into the 1950s, as a precursor to the “wiggle dress”. The pinup era was in full swing, the world was finally free of the war and women wanted to be seen. The figure-flattering shape became a must-have for post-war women.
Legends like Marilyn Monroe and Bettie Page became the “IT girls” flaunting their curves in the sheath dress.
The style continued through the 50s, 60s, and 70s, with adaptation in shoulder styles, lengths, fabrics, and so on. Like, for instance, Paco Rabanne brought to light the ground-breaking chain-mail dress. They were ideally the sheath dress with a lot of design evolution.
The modern BODYCON
Then in the early 80s, Azzedine Alaia took the style to another level. He created the “bandage dress”, which would be the predecessor of our current bodycon dress, and became the “King of Cling”. Calling these garments “dresses” might be an understatement. They were essentially like bandages, pulling all your curves together to outline your body’s contour, almost mummifying.
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The then budding designer, Herve Peugnet (of Herve Leger), who was working under Alaia, further developed upon this style in. Then, in 1989 he designed what we today know as the bodycon dress. In those days, they also called it “the bender” owing to how it bends and molds the body. It was a raging fashion among models and celebrities and surprisingly, it still is!
While Leger is credited for creating the bodycon, many people don’t know that it was actually Alaia’s brainchild in the 80s.
From “conscious” to “confident”
Like we mentioned earlier, we have a serious issue with the etymology and the definition of “BODYCON”.
The dress created a desire for the hourglass figure, making every woman wanting to have that body and don that style.
You see the problem here? We believe the very idea of being “body-conscious” is not the most emotionally uplifting one. Rather, it’s a cruel deception of our natural physique.
What’s surprising to us is that it was those decades when society was fighting for women’s rights, trying to elevate their social status. Yet, on the other hand, the fashion industry was designing something that generates false expectations in women. Isn’t the very need to look/have the “perfect shape” completely counterproductive to the efforts of empowering women?
And so, we decided to redefine the meaning of the bodycon. For us, it’s a “body confidence” dress.
The Showstopper Bodycon dress
Women come in all shapes, sizes, and each one of them unique. The conventional bodycon has been unforgiving to many. The way it is designed from the beginning, would be unkind to those who don’t have the socially defined “perfect body”, thus making women feel like that they don’t fit into the trend and thus failing in their style expectations.
Ideally, the bodycon should have a little relaxed fit, designed in lighter fabrics. The idea was to make them comfortable enough to wear in warm weather. Our bodycon dresses are not like bandages, for they are for wounds. Although for the basic shape, we got inspired by this decades old style, we ensure that the design of our bodycon does absolute justice to who you are.
A dress must be designed to fit you well, just the way you are, flaunting every bit of what nature gifted you with. Because, in the end, your clothes are about making you feel confident and positive. Only then can you feel empowered and be who you are and not what the world wants you to be.
