The Slip Dress Has Subverted the Industry: The Key Pieces Defining the Shift
What's in a slip dress? Practically speaking, it's a garment usually composed of silk or some other slinky material, but generally, the slip dress has come to represent one of fashion's great wonders. A dress that looks great in its simplest form with minimal accessorizing and does the job from day to night. At most, when it's cold you can throw on a little cardigan or a blazer, but a slip dress is truly perfect.
When going to the office five days a week was a regular part of my reality, my protagonist (RIP) slip dress was the piece I reached for when I was sick of pants but wanted to look like I had my stuff together. It was black, made of 100% silk with thin straps, and designed with a bias cut for extra figure-framing ability (a bias means it's sewn at an angle rather than straight on, which narrows at the waist). There wasn't any dainty lace or flashy bedazzling on it, but back then, slip dresses were beloved for their utility rather than their artistic declaration.
The slip dress has never really been a symbol of the subversive, which is probably why when Kate Moss wore an iridescent transparent slip dress by Liza Bruce in 1993 (sans a bra and just a pair of briefs), the moment seared through into the zeitgeist. It was shocking and defined Moss as a rebellious figure that challenges the industry status quo. Ironically, Moss's take doesn't feel out of place 30 years later when fashion has collectively accepted nudity with open arms. Since then, the slip dress also slowly reconfigured itself as the basic piece that defines '90s minimalism.
Recently, there have been reiterations with tongue-in-cheek expressions like "Got Milkweed?" from Collina Strada and coquette graphics of pastel-colored cakes and bows from Nodress. On the edgy side, labels like ACNE Studios and Christopher Kane have taken to deconstructing slip dresses altogether with double-layering and bust-exposing cutouts. Needless to say, slip dresses are evolving—here are 30 delightfully fresh takes on the wardrobe staple.
I bought this without thinking twice.
I dream about this dress every day.
Next: If Looking Chic Is Your Goal, Following These 10 Fashion People Is Step #1
Indya Brown is a fashion editor, stylist, and writer living in Los Angeles. After graduating in 2016, she joined The Cut as a fashion assistant, eventually working her way up to fashion editor. While New York has been her home for over 10 years, she moved to Los Angeles in the midst of the pandemic in 2020 for a new chapter where she started working atBest Knockoff Luxury Clothing , focusing on emerging designers, rising trends on and off the internet, interior design, and BIPOC creatives and brands. Aside from her work atBest Knockoff Luxury Clothing , Brown is also a freelance stylist and writer, working on national print and video commercial campaigns for Sephora, The Independent, and Cadillac. Her bylines also include Harper's Bazaar, Vox, and The New York Times.
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