Dress

A dress (also known as a frock or a gown) is a one-piece outer garment that is worn on the torso, hangs down over the legs. Dresses often consist of a bodice attached to a skirt.

Dress shapes, silhouettes, textiles, and colors vary. In particular, dresses can vary by sleeve length, neckline, skirt length, or hemline. These variances may be based on considerations such as fashion trends, modesty, weather, and personal taste. Dresses are generally suitable for both formal wear and casual wear.

Historically, foundation garments and other structural garments—including items such as corsets, partlets, petticoats, panniers, and bustles—were used to achieve the desired silhouette.

In the 11th century, women in Europe wore loose garments that were similar in shape to the tunics worn by men. Sleeves varied in fit and length, and hemlines fell below the knees, most often reaching the ankle or ground. These dresses were worn over ankle-length chemise garments. As the century progressed, these dresses featured a tighter fit on the arms and upper body. The tighter fit was achieved by making slits to the waist and in the sleeves that were laced closed to fit the figure. Laces were gradually replaced by buttons. By the end of the 11th century, sleeves widened with cuffs sometimes reaching several feet in circumference. This style remained popular into the 13th century, although the sleeves once again became more fitted.

In the 13th and 14th centuries, a similar dress known as a cote-hardie came into fashion. This garment was closed down the front of the bodice with buttons that extended to the hip; this resulted in a dress that was more fitted through the hip rather than just to the waist. These dresses also often featured decorative elements such as long strips of cloth around the elbow known as tippets.

In the 15th century, houppelandes and gowns became popular. Houppelandes were full-cut, floor-length dresses with high collars and full sleeves. Gowns were also long dresses, but they had open necklines, a closer-fitted bodice, and sleeves that became more fitted as the century progressed. Both houppelandes and gowns were often belted just below the bust.

European dresses in at the start of the 16th century resembled those of the previous century: full-cut, belted gowns with large sleeve openings worn over a kirtle or petticoat and chemise. Decorative treatments such as pinking, slashing, and blackwork embroidery became increasingly common. Necklines were initially low and broad, but wearers began to fill in the open space with high collared chemises or partlets. Although the overall style of dress was fairly consistent across the continent, there were regional differences often involving sleeve shape and decorative elements. European courts, such as Tudor court and the wives of Henry VIII, were influential in European fashion. From the 1540s, the bodices of dresses were stiffened, flattening the wearer's chest, and skirts were shaped with a Spanish farthingale. The resulting silhouette resembled two triangles.

From the 1550s, middle- and upper-class European women could choose between the still popular rigid farthingale style or a looser-style gown known as a ropa. The ropa style of dress was known by different names throughout Europe, including sumarra (Italy), marlotte (France), and vlieger (Holland). Fashionable sleeves were often more fitted with puffs at the shoulder. From the 1570s, dress became even more highly decorated, exaggerated, and rigid. The previously popular conical skirt shape achieved with a Spanish farthingale was replaced by the wider, more conical wheel farthingale. Under Queen Elizabeth, sumptuary laws dictated what people of different social rank were allowed to wear.