One-Shouldered Dress on BCBG Runway.
*This article appeared, in full or in part, in the Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun, National Post, The Edmonton Journal, Global TV, and more. With special thanks to shrimptoncouture.com!
The one-armed Jane — Tarzan’s gal pal — is coming on strong this summer on the runways, red carpets and Winners outlets near you.
Asymmetrical tops pull the eye in all sorts of directions, from the arm to the neck and up to the face, so all that extra effort had better point our gaze somewhere worthwhile. For edgy gals, it may lead our eyes to a flower or even a turban — which is what Kate Moss wore with her silver asymmetrical mini Marc Jacobs dress to a gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in May.
But ladies who can direct our eyes toward something symbolically large — like toward hope, to a baby, or a dashing new president — are the ones who’ve truly dazzled in asymmetrical in the last year.
Think of Michelle Obama at the Inaugural Ball in January with her white chiffon Jason Wu gown. The new president’s goofy smile said it all: “How good-looking is my wife?” a charmed Barack Obama asked the press that night. Like a moving statue — not a dinky trophy — the first lady’s dignified drape swished as she danced. Her bold character, paired with that classical dress, made her the perfect embodiment of a Greek goddess.
Other memorable asymmetrical looks this year were worn by breast cancer survivor Christina Applegate at the Screen Actors Guild awards (in green) and Heidi Klum, who donned an off-the-shoulder disco silver mini dress, with a cape, to the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards in June. Her look was radiant, especially with her enormous pregnant belly.
Even though the asymmetrical look has been worn often through the years, those who wore it before were often powerful muses — an important point to keep in mind before throwing one on.
The trend seems to have resurfaced from the disco dancing ’70s era with designer Roy Halston.
Halston, who brought the one-armed jungle dress look and Grecian glamour gown together, boasted cocktail dresses with asymmetrical tops and skirts that swirled as you twirled. His designs were popular with Bianca Jagger and Elizabeth Taylor.
“Five years ago, you couldn’t sell a one-shoulder dress if you tried,” said Cherie Federau, an avid Halston collector and owner of ShrimptonCou-ture.com, a full e-commerce vintage site based outside of Toronto.
But, she says, ever since stylist Rachel Zoe and Jimmy Choo founder Tamara Mellon were spotted everywhere in vintage Halstons — only to relaunch the label last year — the one-shoulder look was everywhere.
Another relaunched vintage brand that Federau says is doing great is Herve Leger, which is designed by BCBG’s Max Azria and his wife, Lubov.
In 2008 the couple re-launched the Leger line, which was famous in the ’80s and ’90s for Egyptian-inspired mummy snug bandage dresses. Azria’s Herve Leger numbers are more casual and form fitting than many of the draping goddess gowns he designs for his other labels, BCBG and Max Azria (though also more expensive).
PART II, HISTORY OF ASYMMERTRICAL
Mike Segar / Above, Claudette Colbert as Cleopatra in 1934. Photograph by: Photo Courtesy Of Paramount Pictures Reuters, For TheGazette; Canwest News Service
History of Asymmetrical:
The popular 1830s painting by Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) titled Liberty Leading the People is an example of the power of the peeping bosom.
The painting shows a working-class version of the Roman goddess Liberty in an asymmetrical dress that bares her breast. She holds up a revolutionary flag with the same arm, inspiring those around her.
The Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island in New York’s harbour is rumoured to have been inspired by the Delacroix painting, though one wonders why her asymmetrical drape wound up so thick and pious looking
Throughout the 20th century in pop culture, asymmetrical styles have become increasingly sexual. But they didn’t start out that way.
In her book Seeing Through Clothes, art and costume historian Anne Hollander explains the significance of the asymmetrical dress in paintings.
Prior to the 15th century, she says, asymmetrical dresses were worn by the suckling Mother of Christ or the fighting all-female Amazon warriors of ancient Greece, who were rumoured to have pinched off one breast for ease of combat.
These images usually came with partial nudity–as in, the fabric slung so low that a naked breast was revealed. The woman appeared to be in motion and preoccupied with a greater cause, which denoted “unself-conscious movement,” Hollander writes, and helped to conceal any erotic connotations.
However, dishevelled frocks and exposed flesh eventually took on more heated connotations, including an “emotional disarray,” that signalled “unsettling events were underway,” Hollander says.
In the 20th century, one-shoulder styles said something about the wearer’s character. In Cecil B. DeMille’s 1932 film The Sign of the Cross, Roman empress Poppaea (Claudette Colbert) wore a seductive, figure-clinging gown. Colbert wore a similar gown in Cleopatra two years later.
By the 1940s, after the invention of nylon and Lastex, the one-shouldered look came out on swimsuits. Dick Pope’s girls in Cypress Garden Florida, a famous fairyland theme park, wore one-shoulder, two-piece suits to wow the crowd.
Also new to the one-armed look was the sexy cavegirl image, popularized by comic books and the many sequels of the film Tarzan of the Apes (1918). In the 1953 comic series Cave Girl by Magazine Enterprises, a pin-up blond swings from a liana in a saucy asymmetrical animal skin.
German actress Elke Sommer appeared elegant and pure in a oneshoulder dress at the Academy Awards in 1966. But when the trend resurfaced in the 1970s, it had a naughtier feel.
Designer Roy Halston, who brought the onearmed jungle dress look and Grecian glamour gown together, boasted cocktail dresses with asymmetrical tops and skirts that swirled as you twirled. His designs were popular with Bianca Jagger and Elizabeth Taylor.
And who can forget the off-the-shoulder sweatshirt sported by Jennifer Beals in Flashdance (1983)? Beals’ style represented a new kind of sexy, where drive and talent–and a perfectly svelte bum–all counted.
U. S. first lady Michelle Obama helped touch off the latest surge of interest in asymmetric designs with her white Jason Wu gown at the Inaugural Ball in January. Since then, we’ve seen it on starlets everywhere.