The cocktail dress is my favorite kind of dress style, and why not? Can you name any other garment named after a drink? There is no other dress that is so closely associated with a specific time of the evening. Few dresses bring to mind such specific cuts, length, social settings, and times in fashion history as the cocktail dress.
In the mid 20th century, the cocktail dress generally consisted of a top worked as a bodice hanging from thin spaghetti straps (i.e. there was a distinct décolleté). Those in the younger demographics often wore bouncy petticoat skirts and a wide bow of taffeta, sateen, or in summer stiff cotton fabric.
Later, in the late 1950’s, the cocktail dress had more of a balloon-like skirt that was often worn with a short jacket (bolero), or a cocktail suit made from brocade, and often trimmed with fur. There was a reversal in the 1960’s, when the term “cocktail dress” was deemed too conservative. Luckily, the term re-emerged in the 1980’s as an interim solution between sporty day wear and elegant evening fashion. By this time, however, it was more about the fabric and look of the garment that truly made it “cocktail” rather then any stringent hemline length – as it remains today.
