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PHOTOGRAPHS: HUGH STEWARTGETTY IMAGESHAIR: PETE LENNONMAKE-UP: PETER BEARDMODELS: ANYAJESSICA ANDERSONEMELIINA PORVARIALL PRICES APPROXIMATEDETAILS AT VOGUE.COM.AU/WTB“In the past, when you’d go out for a really formal evening, you’d be
going to a grand ball,” says Charlotte Smith, author of One Enchanted
Evening and curator of the Darnell Collection, an 8,000-plus-piece
archive of important designer clothing inherited from her godmother.
“You would wear a ballgown, which had a huge voluminous skirt and
was probably very tight fitting,” she says of the kinds of 1950s waltz
gowns chosen for debutante balls. Inspiration and invitations then were
straightforward. “Now, I think we have too many options.”
Where then to turn our eyes and subsequently fill our wardrobes
with the right garb for our own lives? Remember, these are lives in
which a black tie dress code produces varying results, where the
freedom we have to dress as we please is both a privilege and a
conundrum and we attend multiple occasions in a 24-hour period. “The
concept of a dress code in itself feels dated; occasionwear is now
everything from a jumpsuit to a sequined jean to a ballgown,” says
Candice Fragis, buying and merchandising director at Farfetch.
That life is faster today adds to the fading of these dress codes and
makes evenings more unpredictable. After-five attire used to mean
women would dress to sip cocktails, often standing, not dancing, while
a dinner party meant a hostess would don a hostess gown, a style of
dress popular from the 30s to the 70s, worn while entertaining at home,
and was sometimes so well planned it would match the tablecloth, as
socialite Jamee Gregory once recounted to the New York Times.
Today, our nights are sometimes only planned as far as our arrivals,
at other times for our departures, as we hop from party to party to
celebrate the increasing amount of milestones we’ve deemed
momentous. “I think there are too many things to dress up for these
days, so it’s hard to make it special all the time – financially and time-
wise,” says Smith, who says that while balls still exist, they do so in
proliferation in more informal settings.
Enter designer ingenuity. “Creation is simply a problem, and design
is the way out,” British-born couturier Charles James once said.
A perfectionist, James came up with in-built structures by which one of
his sweeping taffeta dresses could be adjusted to fit different sizes, and
the ‘taxi’ dress, cut so that it could be slipped on in the back of a taxi.
Today’s designers are dealing with problems unique to today. “The
rules of eveningwear have become more fluid,” says Sola Harrison,
creative director of eveningwear label Galvan. “We want our customers
to be able to wear a Galvan piece to a black tie event and afterwards to
a casual bar without feeling out of place in either venue.” The label’s
modern eveningwear, which Harrison designs alongside Anna-
Christin Haas, and fellow co-founders Carolyn Hodler and Katherine
Holmgren, is made to flit between engagements. Take an all-black off-
shoulder jumpsuit with tassels trimming the neckline: worn with heels,
it nears red-carpet levels of dressing up. With sneakers, it’s a friend’s
birthday party. Fan Sienna Miller wears the label on red carpets
(a molten silver and nude stripe slip) and to the tennis (at Wimbledon
she sat courtside in a white jumpsuit).
“Women are generally not as willing to spend an exorbitant amount
of money on a single garment that they can only wear once,” says
Harrison. “Anna and I always keep in mind that we want our customers
to be able to accessorise our pieces in different ways.”
Current designers like Rosie Assoulin and Sally LaPointe willingly
take on these challenges, with the former enlisting friends to tell her
exactly where they need outfits to take them and how they need to
function at night. As a result, Assoulin builds pockets into all of her
gowns that meld a surprise element – think a fabric traditionally used
Paris Georgia top,
$259, and pants, $392. $259, and pants, $392.
Chanel hair band, Chanel hair band,
$4,650, from the $4,650, from the
Chanel boutiques. Chanel boutiques.
Prada earrings, $770. Prada earrings, $770.
Tiffany & Co. ring, Tiffany & Co. ring,
$11,400. Bulgari $11,400. Bulgari
ring, $4,750, and ring, $4,750, and
bag, $2,940.bag, $2,940.for day – with a more traditional floor-length silhouettes. LaPointe has
received praise for thinking of versatile design points, like a cape-back
dress in her recent spring/summer 2018 collection that does away with
an evening jacket, or palazzo pants in grey marle that are dressy in
shape but demonstrate a concern for freedom of movement that would
make Madeleine Vionnet, the master of drape and fluidity, proud.
A fuss-free approach is mirrored by Australian designer Rachel
Gilbert, who is celebrating 10 years in business this year and has spent
time formulating an easy approach to eveningwear. With gowns that
have run the gamut from shimmering column dresses to dresses with
cascading ruffles nearly dwarfing the piece beneath, she has produced a
capsule collection to celebrate the anniversary that strips it back to
essentials. “Simplicity is key in occasion dressing at this time,” she says.
While centrepiece dresses are somewhat stock-in-trade for her, and
certainly not off limits for today, Gilbert explains it is in the way you
wear it. “Less is more. If you choose a statement dress of bright colour,
print or embellishment, avoid loud accessories or bold make-up.”
“The more spectacular the dress, the less often you can wear it,” says
Smith, who believes a more austere approach provides flexibility and
wearability, a point reflected by the pieces in the Darnell Collection that
have stood the test of time. “It’s when [designers] haven’t gone
overboard with the particular style or feature that’s fashionable in that
decade.” Like a Bill Blass black crepe de chine gown that, though