The Bandage Dress Is Back

The Bandage Dress Is Back

The bandage dress is back, which is the fashion equivalent of a rerun nobody asked for and everybody watches. Its return is straightforward: after years of loose slip dresses and oversized everything, tight reads new again. This edit runs from the black original through colour and back to the short version that started it all

Black bandage, bodycon and ruched

Black is where the bandage dress made its name and it remains the most wearable version. The construction holds a line on its own, so the dress does the shaping and the styling can stay bare.

Colour and shine

Colour is the update. Bright and metallic bandage reads as a knowing revival rather than a leftover, and it is the version that turns up on going out feeds rather than in old photographs.

Ruched and bandage minis

Short is the original brief and the reason the silhouette keeps returning. Ruching does the same job as bandage knit with less commitment, and a mini in stretch needs no tailoring at all, which is why it survived from the clubs of one decade into the phone cameras of another.

Our honest take

This is the least forgiving shape in any edit, and pretending otherwise is how people end up not wearing it. The good ones are heavy, seamed and hold their shape when you pull them, and the bad ones look thin on the hanger. If you take one thing away, judge it by the weight of the fabric.

Shop brands in this edit

Shop AMURShop Fleur Du MalShop SuperdownShop EterneShop Lovers And FriendsShop Retrofete

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