Dress-shirts in the spring-summer collections

IN A CONSTANT WONDERZINE HEADtalks about trends from the podium that can be adapted for your wardrobe for the next six months. In this issue we understand how to wear dress-shirts, which appeared in the collections of designers from Balenciaga to N21 by Alessandro Dell'Acqua.

How it all began

Dress shirt appeared in the 50s of the last century thanks to Christian Dior. He took the classic shirt as a basis and added a knee-length crinoline skirt to it. The sleeve of the classic dress-shirt was to the elbow, and the waist at first just denoted by a belt. The idea of a French dress picked up in the States. So, American designer Anne Fogarty made a more casual version of such a dress (without a crinoline). The feminine silhouette and simplicity of the dress idea worked out with a bang. In 1957, a shirt-dress appears on the pages of the American magazine Life and costs $ 25. Dresses are bought up by "Stepford wives" and rockabilly-girls. In Russia, such a dress appears young Lumila Gurchenko in the film "Carnival Night". Starting in the 1960s, T-shirt dresses and polo dresses were created according to a similar idea (through the efforts of brands like Ralph Lauren, Lacoste and Tommy Hilfiger). In the late 60s, during the second wave of feminism (the first was in the forties - remember Marlene Dietrich in a man's suit) women sought to gain independence on an equal basis with men, so, for example, Brigitte Bardot demonstrates at this time that you can take a men's classic shirt and wear her like a dress.

How to wear a shirt dress

Dress shirt is a daily thing. Designers today show two extremes: either the classic version of a dress-shirt on a short-sleeved belt, made of innovative materials (as an option, adorned with a print), or a simple blank monophonic dress, which is plain to ordinary men’s shirt. For a long time, natural fabrics were used for sewing such dresses: cotton and silk (the same as for men's shirts). Today, as we see, in the collections of designers dress-shirt can be sewn even from a 3D mesh, like Christopher Kane. For example, Stella McCartney demonstrates a dress made of transparent polyamide with viscose inserts, in Tommy Hilfiger a dress made of colored neoprene, Giles show a perforated version. Another idea is demonstrated by Raf Simons for Christian Dior: he wears a pink bustier on a classic gray shirt dress.

Most of this year’s reflections among designers were caused by the classic men's white shirt, which more than once replaced the girls with a short dress. So, Alexander Wang for Balenciaga shows a sculpted dress shirt, the minimalist Helmut Lang is a strict snow-white dress shirt midi length and suggests wearing over cloaked trousers; or second skirt.

beware

White is now experiencing a new birth and, in general, you can not be afraid to wear a white shirt dress with the same snow-white trousers, a tuxedo or elongated bermudas. However, we still advise you to look at something contrasting and put on under a shirt-dress, for example, elongated, dusty-pink Bermuda shorts. So for the city will be more comfortable.

One more nuance concerns the shoes - now it is great to wear a dress shirt with shoes on a flat turn: flip flops, sneakers, and gym shoes. In this case, you can even stop at the version of the dress-shirt exactly like a man's shoulder. If you decide to wear with a heel, be sure to add a belt, otherwise you will get an outfit "I woke up somewhere after corporate parties."