SLIP DRESSES
It’s summer and it’s hot every where . When the hot weather hits everyone seems to strip off. Therefore you see as many different looks as are physically possible . In fact the smallest shorts and the tiniest tube tops are the go to for millennial’s . While that’s all fine if you’re spending the day at the park or the beach. But what do you wear when you’re not relaxing at the pool . Certainly a dress is often cooler than pants but what I’m seeing this year is the return of slip dresses. First this look may not be appropriate for the office but for summer evenings out and on the street this is the look.
ARE YOU WEARING YOUR SLIP?
Since many of you have only known a slip as a style of a dress let me explain. As an underdress or underskirt, a slip provides a middle layer that mediates between underwear and outer-wear. Among its functions, a slip can make transparent garments more modest and eliminate rubbing and unsightly clinging. Originally slips were of daintily trimmed cotton or occasionally of silk. Good taste demanded that a slip be long enough-ideally exactly one inch shorter than the outer garment-but never show at the hem. For all their opaque respectability, slips were molded to the contour of the body, often daintily decorated, and ordinarily hidden from view.
In fact dears I can remember my mother getting dressed to go out, she’d do her hair in the bathroom while wearing her slip. ( As the little boy fashion lover I was, I thought the slip was a beautiful dress.) When I think back my Mum would be perfectly put together and the slip was a big part of that. Certainly few wear a slip today except with some Haute Couture garments or high end dresses that might appear clingy or need protection.
With this in mind those of you who know me know how much I love old Hollywood. In fact it was common for films and publicity photographs to exploit the slip on it’s stars and starlets. But darlings the most famous slip ever was worn by Elizabeth Taylor , in Tennessee Williams’s “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof “. In this case it was as if the slip had a supporting role. This sexy garment set the tone and showed just how seductive a slip can be. 
THE SLIP BECOMES A DRESS
The slip, however, was reborn as a result of the “underwear as outerwear” phenomenon of the early 1990s. Slip dresses and other undergarments were certainly popularized by pop culture, especially by Madonna. The “slip dress” became a nostalgic yet daring fashion favorite, edgily imbued with the thrill of lingerie. Its revealing cut, lightweight fabric, and spaghetti straps precluded supportive undergarments, requiring a toned body and a confident attitude. As slip dresses became more popular, they were made more practical . Hence women and even designers who layered them over white T-shirts, completing the slip’s transformation from undergarment to outergarment.
THE SLIP DRESS 2018
Certainly the slip dress was a big hit on the runways for 2018 . Furthermore the list of fashion houses showing the slip dresses was varied. For example Oscar de la Renta showed sequin smothered slip dresses. Furthermore the spaghetti-strap dresses were central to the collections of Tory Burch, Ralph Lauren and Alexander Wang . However Coach 41 had some of the best slip dresses of the season.
Coach
Coach
DAY Birger Et Mikkelsen
Tory Burch
Oscar De La Renta
Polo Ralph Lauren
Alexander Wang
Christopher Kane
Christopher Kane – Lace-trimmed Silk-chiffon Dress – Red
Susana Monaco
Topshop
Diane Von Furstenberg
Alice + Olivia
J.Crew
Ganni
