Character. Intelligence. Strength. Style. That makes beauty.
— Diane von Furstenberg (1946) Belgian fashion designer
Diane von Furstenberg started her fashion design career and became famous with her wrap dress. This orange 70s vintage example was retrieved on May 30, 2021 from Shopmodig.
Her silk jersey wrap dress was an influencer for me as I grew into adulthood. It was the seams on her dresses (or dresses like hers) I checked in my first job. I had to make sure every article of clothing that was put on the sales floor of the high-end dress shop (at least it was high-end in the mid-sized town I lived) was in faultless condition. I worked in the basement and checked for split seams, fabric flaws, sewing mistakes, dye irregularities, and print or stripe mismatches. Does anyone do that anymore?
People say I made the dress. Yes, I made the dress, but the dress made me.
- Diane von Furstenberg
Apparently, she originally created a wrap-around top with a matching skirt and that evolved into the dress. The DVF's wrap dress was born in 1973/1974 (depending on the source you read) when she arrived in New York with a suitcase full of jersey print wrap dresses. Asked why she invented this particular dress, she emphasized the ease of getting dressed and I would also suggest getting undressed. She has been quoted as saying:
If you are trying to slip out without waking a sleeping man, zips are a nightmare. Haven’t you ever tried to creep out of the room unnoticed the following morning? I’ve done that many times.
Considering DVF's wrap dress has been used to symbolically represent the the rise of the women's movement in the 1970s, liberated women, and comfort and ease in workplace dressing, I find it has similarities to previous "house dress" patterns from an era that was not so liberated. Here's a wrap dress called "a 1949 Women's Wrap Around Brunch Coat" from the category of House Dresses in a Simplicity Vintage Sewing Pattern (Retrieved May 30, 2021 from Ecrater — 2845 https://www.ecrater.com/p/7216806/1949-womens-wrap-around-brunch-coat).
I remember my aunt having a blue floral wrap house dress just like the vintage Simplicity pattern. I feel certain that DVF, who was married to a prince (making her a princess although she lost that privilege with divorce) and who first designed a wrap-around top and a skirt was not influenced by a "house dress". However, DVF's wrap dress does look like a re-stylized, re-invented, shortened adaptation of the 1950s version. Has anyone ever had that thought before? It does appear like there's really nothing "new", simply revisited, modified, and revitalized with updated fabrics created for a new market audience and regenerated with a new "story". No matter the origin or motivation — it was brilliant.
At 75, Diane von Furstenberg is still designing and still in charge.
For me, the zipper issue is huge. I have one dress that has a side zipper - that's perfect. All the others have back zippers. Impossible if you are alone. With apologies to DVF, the ease of dressing gives the wrap dress a greater advantage than for the purpose of "sneaking out without waking a sleeping man".
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