Cocktail dress

Black cocktail dress

Typical cocktail dress, storefront, South Hampton

A cocktail dress or cocktail gown is a woman's dress worn at cocktail parties, and semi-formal occasions.

The length of cocktail dresses varies depending on fashion and local custom. The length ranges from just above the knee to touching the ankle. When it is about 5 cm (2 inches) above the ankle it is called tea length and when it is almost touching the ankle it is called ballerina length, although ballerina length dresses usually fall into the evening gown category.

At semi-formal occasions, less elaborate, shorter-length cocktail dresses may be worn. Prior to the mid 20th century this type of dress was known as 'late afternoon'. When gentlemen are in business suits, ladies also wear dress suits or "good" afternoon skirt and dresses.

By the 1980s a dress was considered to be cocktail less by where the hem fell, but more by the level of sumptuousness the garment attained.

In the mid-20th century, some couturiers began describing full-skirted cocktail gowns as "dancing costumes". These are suitable for formal dances but not for balls, or other white tie affairs, where ball gowns are worn.

History

Cocktail dress - shortened women's clothes for special occasions without a collar and sleeves. It appeared in the US during the time of “Prohibition of alcohol”. At that time, a party with drinks was held in private homes or secret bars. At these places alcohol was served, jazz was played, and people went there to have fun and dating. Such events required a particular form of smart clothing: less formal and elegant than evening, but more fanciful and flamboyant than casual. Thus was born the cocktail dress.

Initially, this dress barely overlapped the knees, was based on latest trends of fashion and made of expensive, but not luxurious, fabrics. For cocktail dresses were relied special accessories: small purses, embroidered with beads, in which were placed only cash and a powder-box, open shoes with straps under the color of dress, long, up to the elbow, gloves. By 30th year, due to taste and perseverance of Coco Chanel, "little black dress" - sample cocktail attire "is always at hand" - has become a permanent part of every woman's wardrobe.^[1]

See also

• Little black dress

References

1. ^ da Cruz, Elyssa (2000). "Dressing for the Cocktail Hour". Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/coho/hd_coho.htm. Retrieved November 13, 2009. 

External links

• Cocktail dresses from the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
• Fashionable Guide - Everything you wished to know about cocktail dresses