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Suffused with all kinds of symbolism—danger, love, courage and rage—a red dress is the fashion equivalent of a hi-vis emergency jacket. It is about passion and self-realization, like when Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts undergo psychic transformations in Moulin Rouge and in Pretty Woman. And there’s a reason why Lana Del Rey wrote “I got my red dress on tonight / Dancin’ in the dark, in the pale moonlight,” on “Summertime Sadness”. A red dress is a rose, a poison apple, a wound.
Whether that’s what Emily Ratajkowski was thinking when she decided to wear a slit-thigh Marcia number while walking her dog in New York remains unclear. But Dua Lipa clearly cloaked herself in its lore when she posted this picture on Instagram, sitting on the edge of the ocean in a semi-sheer Blumarine maxi-dress from Nicola Brognano’s spring 2023 collection.
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Here is a non-exhaustive list of just about everyone else who has stepped out in a scarlet gown over the past fortnight: Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez, Kate Moss, Florence Pugh, Jennifer Lopez, and even The Princess of Wales.
Having surfaced within the fall 2023 collections of Ferragamo, Fendi, Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Prada, and The Row, the scarlet gown has proliferated the runways to such an extent that Vogue House has declared it one of this season’s dominant trends. Meanwhile, Matchesfashion.com has seen searches for the item increase by 23 percent since last year. “It’s the color of kings and queens, war and empire, theatre and power,” as Charlotte Sinclair previously wrote in Vogue. “Red is adrenaline, fireworks, the break with convention. It is shame and violence and blushing and rage.”
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