Fashion : Dresses Are at Home Again in Workplace
Dresses are back in the fashion forefront, edging out sportswear as the working woman’s preferred corporate clothing.
In fact, the sale of dresses increased 7.1% in 1988, the single greatest increase in all women’s apparel groups sold in that year, according to a report issued by the Apparel Market Monitor.
Department and specialty-store executives around town confirm the trend. At the Broadway, chairman Michael Hecht says dresses are leading sellers for special occasions as well as the office. At Robinson’s, fashion merchandising vice president Wesley Clay says the newly broadened range of styles available helps explain shoppers’ enthusiasm. From wrap-and-tie knitwear to youthful-looking jumpers, he adds, “the freshest looks are inspired by sportswear.”
Fashion and marketing director Patricia Fox at Saks Fifth Avenue says dresses may well replace sportswear as the most popular look for the ‘90s, especially since sportswear designers themselves are now featuring them. She mentions Isaac Mizrahi and Louis Dell’Olio for Anne Klein, both featured at Saks. “Their dresses offer the comfort of sportswear, with the ease of a single garment,” Fox explains.
Updated styles bear little resemblance to the predictable range of silk chemises or run-of-the-mill cotton shirtwaists. In fact, the sporty-looking coatdress may be the leading silhouette. Short, bubble dresses, especially in sweater knits, are a favorite among such young spirited designers as Adrienne Vittadini and Marc Jacobs for Perry Ellis. And dresses in fitted shapes with narrow skirts and long sleeves, some with detachable white collar and cuffs, are included in the medieval-inspired collection of Ronaldus Shamask.
All options still offer a dress’ single best attraction. It is easy to wear.
“A woman gets up in the morning and slips it on; there’s nothing complicated about it,” says Los Angeles designer Mark Eisen, who debuted his dress collection last year. Eisen says he started the line after testing a few dress designs in his sportswear collection and was surprised by the very positive results.
Holiday Line
He is currently showing his holiday dresses, which will retail for about $190. They are lightweight wool crepe or jersey, and they drape the body in a flattering way. Known to be a fan of elaborate buttons, especially any that resemble the brass insigne-type associated with the Chanel label, Eisen uses decorative buttons to full advantage in his holiday line. Looking ahead to 1990, he expects to introduce 12 to 16 new dress styles each month, to keep up with anticipated demand.
Rose Mary Brantley, also based in Los Angeles, learned from personal, rather than professional, experience that dresses offer a fresh alternative to separates--which now saturate most women’s wardrobes.
“Suddenly I found that even I had no dresses,” says Brantley, who has been designing them since 1973.
Opened Last Year
New York-based Dell’Olio opened his dress division last year, after observing the effect that European designer-label dresses--even the baby-doll styles of Paris-based Christian Lacroix--were having on American women.
“The whole Lacroix craze gave women a reason to go out and buy a dress,” Dell’Olio mused. “It brought attention to dresses.”
His fall dress collection centers on wool crepe styles with such details as his signature jeweled buttons and suede belts. Prices average $400.
“There has been a lack of creativity in the dress market; most of what is offered has been very junior or missy looking,” he says. “We tried to offer elegant, sexy dresses that are really wearable.”
A number of high-powered career women confirm that they are really wearing the look.
“With the right accessories, a dress can do the same job as a suit,” notes Hope Boonshaft Lewis of the Century City public relations firm Boonshaft Lewis and Savitch. “Whether or not I wear a dress depends largely on my mood. Sometimes a dress is easier.”
Gale Hayman, once a co-owner of the Giorgio boutique in Beverly Hills, now owner of a cosmetic company that bears her name, tends to wear dresses more often than other fashion options because she finds them to be more flattering. Their new popularity has to do with changing social attitudes, she believes.
“Women have come through the ‘80s when we wore suits to compete with men,” she says. “Now, we are back to femininity.”
Aside from the novelty, and the the increasingly office-worthy styles being offered this season, designers believe women will look to dresses for another reason: They can be slimming to the figure.
