One reason: the “Real Housewife-ification of social dressing.”
The Xcite dress from 2005.
Via: wizbangblog.com
In 2005, prom dress designer Xcite held a runway show in Houston, Texas to show off its newest collection. One model walked the runway in a dress that seemed particularly risqué – her breasts were covered only by two very narrow straps of fabric forming an X across her chest. Is this really what was being marketed to teenage girls? Well, no, it turned out. Some said the model had worn the dress backwards, others said she didn't cross the straps behind her neck like she was supposed to. Either way, she made an already quite revealing dress even skimpier. But that didn't matter — the buyers loved it, and it became one of the most popular dresses of the season.
With puffy pink dresses having gone the way of the VHS, prom-goers have been eager — particularly in the last few years — to flaunt shoulder blades, midriffs, breasts, and thighs in all manner of backless, stomach-baring, skintight, embellished dresses. The Xcite incident only accelerated a prom dress trend of less fabric, more skin. Now, the ever-skimpier dresses have led to a nationally sensationalized slutty dress crackdown by vexed school administrators. Even Sarah Palin was asked to weigh in on it on the "Today" show this week.
Experts suspect high school girls are getting the message that this is what's hot (and acceptable) from reality television shows like "The Real Housewives" and "American Idol"; obsessive red-carpet coverage of award shows like the Oscars; and the Internet, where all these images are all-too-accessible. On all of the "Real Housewives" shows, formal dresses are part of everyday life. Every event — whether it's an actually fancy gathering or just dinner at a friend's house — necessitates a new gown, and highly revealing ones are indisputable favorites; on "Dancing With The Stars," dresses that bare a dancer's sides or stomach are particularly popular.
Drew Barrymore in the 1998 movie "Never Been Kissed," in a flashback to her 1980s prom.
Via: 4.bp.blogspot.com
All of this media has contributed to a rising interest in and greater awareness of formal wear — and a prom dress industry that's ready to give these teens exactly what they want.
"This whole idea of the red-carpet obsession and getting dressed up is at the forefront of our culture," explains Catherine Moellering, the executive vice president of ToBe Report and an expert prom trend tracker. "The idea that [award show] coverage comes on TV three hours before the show even starts — that's something new."
Most fashion trends trickle down from designer runway shows, and astute fashion followers can usually trace a fad back to something that was previously paraded on the runway. But that's not the case with the skin-baring looks that now dominate promwear, says Moellering. In fact, she says runway evening wear has been more covered up in recent seasons. Rather, today's popular prom dress look, Moellering says, "comes from 'Dancing With The Stars' and 'Jersey Shore.'" She adds, "I think it's the Real Housewife-iciation of social occasion dressing."
