It was less than a decade ago that every kind of woman started reluctantly swapping her skinny jeans for floral midis and prairie maxis (which had once been seen as frumpy), and more often than not pairing them with trainers (a styling combination that was previously considered a fashion faux pas).
It was around the same time Raf Simons was dipping into Dior’s iconic ‘New Look’ archive and sending unabashedly feminine dresses down the runway; Alessandro Michele had just taken the helm at Gucci and immediately put pleated midi skirts on the map; and other womenswear designers were introducing trainers into the high-fashion sphere for the first time. Runway trends always find a way of trickling down, but this cocktail of ‘firsts’ went on to shape fashion for the best part of a decade.
Hemlines have grown ever since. So much so that the reintroduction of the mini in 2021 felt almost as revolutionary as it had back in the 1960s. But while John Lewis tried and failed to predict the demise of the floral midi dress a few seasons back, this piece stays put. We can’t erase the last decade of easy ‘throw it on and look pulled-together dressing’ that has liberated women in so many ways.
We also can’t ignore the myriad labels that have popped up as a result of this shift. The likes of Rixo (launched in 2015), DÔEN (2016), Batsheva (also 2016) and Kitri (2017) have seen unprecedented success focusing the majority of their collections on the one-and done outfit. So to hear it for this humble hero, we’ve rounded up 20 of the best dress brands that are really worth celebrating in 2024, from the Australian brands that get modern bohemia just right, to the Scandi brands any Ganni lover will want to discover.
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