Vogue proclaimed “the coming of the narrow, straight ‘slip’ silhouette” in 1934. The time of the restless flapper girl had passed, as had post-war anxiety and prohibition. The Charleston was out; Cole Porter was in. And Ginger Rogers glided across the screen with the same ease as satin slipping over the body.
When slips were revived in the post-modern 1990s, they were representative of several different trends, among them innerwear as outerwear (think: Madonna), vintage and thrift (Courtney Love), the revival of Old Hollywood glamour (Ginger, of course, and other screen goddesses like Greta Garbo and Jean Harlow); and minimalism.
Over time the slip dress has become almost synonymous with the 1990s, a focus of continued fashion fascination. The slips shown in the spring 2021 collections speak to nostalgia for that decade, but they also align with a renewed interest in loungewear, sparked by our current WFH situation. The slips that will take us into the new year offer comfort and chic, which just might be the mantra of the 2020s.
