The Slip Dress Has Subverted the Industry: The Key Pieces Defining the Shift

What's in a slip dress? Practically speaking, it's a garment usually composed of silk or some other slinky material, but generally, the slip dress has come to represent one of fashion's great wonders. A dress that looks great in its simplest form with minimal accessorizing and does the job from day to night. At most, when it's cold you can throw on a little cardigan or a blazer, but a slip dress is truly perfect.

When going to the office five days a week was a regular part of my reality, my protagonist (RIP) slip dress was the piece I reached for when I was sick of pants but wanted to look like I had my stuff together. It was black, made of 100% silk with thin straps, and designed with a bias cut for extra figure-framing ability (a bias means it's sewn at an angle rather than straight on, which narrows at the waist). There wasn't any dainty lace or flashy bedazzling on it, but back then, slip dresses were beloved for their utility rather than their artistic declaration. 

The slip dress has never really been a symbol of the subversive, which is probably why when Kate Moss wore an iridescent transparent slip dress by Liza Bruce in 1993 (sans a bra and just a pair of briefs), the moment seared through into the zeitgeist. It was shocking and defined Moss as a rebellious figure that challenges the industry status quo. Ironically, Moss's take doesn't feel out of place 30 years later when fashion has collectively accepted nudity with open arms. Since then, the slip dress also slowly reconfigured itself as the basic piece that defines '90s minimalism.

Recently, there have been reiterations with tongue-in-cheek expressions like "Got Milkweed?" from Collina Strada and coquette graphics of pastel-colored cakes and bows from Nodress. On the edgy side, labels like ACNE Studios and Christopher Kane have taken to deconstructing slip dresses altogether with double-layering and bust-exposing cutouts. Needless to say, slip dresses are evolving—here are 30 delightfully fresh takes on the wardrobe staple.

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