Liquid gowns oozing languorous elegance, slinky neogoddess drape twisted around every womanly curve, knock-out wiggle dresses in silk taffeta, and hyper-fine underwire tracing breastbones – everywhere you turned for spring/summer ‘23 the runways were thrumming with the simmering heat of a glamorous feminine strength.
LaQuan Smith, who has staked his output on high-octane after-dark sizzle, is one of many designers serving up the dress as the new power piece. “Dresses have always been a fierce show of power due to their innate femininity,” Smith says. “To me, there is nothing more awe-inspiring than a woman being her truest self.” More recently, Maximilian Davis, in his second Ferragamo collection, infused the 1950s skirts of Audrey Hepburn and the nipped-waist smoulder of Marilyn Monroe in autumn/winter '23/'24.
