What Is a Cocktail Dress?

Where does the cocktail dress come from?

The cocktail dress grew out of the private cocktail parties of the 1920s, held in the early evening and bridging day and evening. The Met’s Costume Institute says cocktailing originated in the United States and that the gatherings generally ran from six to eight in the evening. The word itself is older than the dress: the Online Etymology Dictionary dates “cocktail” as a mixed drink to 1798 and “cocktail party” to 1907, and records several competing theories for why the drink got its name.

In The Met’s account, the cocktail dress of the 1920s was a short evening sheath worn with a matching hat, shoes and gloves. In cut it stayed close to day clothes, with longer sleeves, modest necklines and little ornament. What set it apart was the cloth: evening silk faille or satin instead of the wool crepe or gabardine worn by day.

Who named it?

Sources disagree about when the name appeared. The University of Alberta’s Anne Lambert Clothing and Textiles Collection, citing the Oxford English Dictionary, dates the term “cocktail dress” to 1935. The Met’s essay credits Christian Dior as “the first to name the early evening frock a ‘cocktail’ dress in the late 1940s”, and an encyclopedia entry by the same author repeats it. The two claims do not sit easily together, so treat the Dior story as one museum’s attribution rather than settled fact.

How the length moved

The hemline has not stayed put. In the 1930s the cocktail sheath reached the ankle, a length The Met calls “cocktail length”, and the hemline rose again during the Second World War. After Dior’s New Look of 1947 introduced full, mid-calf frocks, Parisian cocktail dresses kept the short length of the 1920s originals, according to the Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion.

The V&A notes that cocktail dresses gained new popularity after the war. Dior’s Little Dictionary of Fashion (1954) described them as “elaborate and dressy afternoon frocks”, preferably in black. In the decades that followed, The Met says, Galitzine’s palazzo-pant ensembles and Emilio Pucci’s jumpsuits replaced the formal cocktail dress on the private party circuit of Europe and America.

What makes a cocktail dress a cocktail dress?

A cocktail dress is defined by its occasion and its place on the formality scale rather than by one fixed cut: it is dressier than daywear but less formal than eveningwear. The University of Alberta collection puts the difference from eveningwear in two things, a shorter length and greater coverage of the arms and chest.

• Length. Debrett’s describes the black-tie cocktail dress as reaching very slightly below the knee. The Grès cocktail dress in the V&A, from about 1955, falls just below the knee.
• Coverage. Debrett’s suggests sleeves or a jacket at a lounge-suit evening, and allows “a little décolletage” at black tie.
• Fit. Debrett’s describes the black-tie version as a fitted dress.
• Cloth. Evening cloths have marked it out since the 1920s. Dior’s 1954 choices, as summarised by the V&A, were black taffeta, satin, chiffon and wool.
• Accessories. Historically it came with a set of accessories. The V&A notes gloves and small, elaborate hats; The Met calls costume jewellery “the definitive cocktail accessory” of the early 1930s.

Cocktail dress vs evening gown vs ball gown

The cocktail dress is most often confused with the evening gown and the ball gown. The quickest tests are length and the dress code.

What are the main types of cocktail dress?

The main types of cocktail dress follow its history: the short sheath, the ankle-length sheath of the 1930s, the dress-and-jacket suit, the full-skirted post-war dress and the black dress.

How do you tell a well-made cocktail dress?

A well-made cocktail dress hangs evenly with its hem parallel to the floor, lies smooth on the body without pulling wrinkles, and is finished inside so that nothing shows from the outside. The checks below follow the University of Idaho’s extension guide to quality standards in clothing construction, which applies them to ready-to-wear as well as home-sewn clothes.

Fit

• Stand in front of a mirror. Wrinkles that pull and draw across the hips, bust or back mean too little ease.
• Check the hem from the side. It should run parallel to the floor, not dip at the front or back.
• Look at the sleeves where they join the body. A well-set sleeve is smooth, not puffy or puckered.

Cloth

• Read the fibre label first. A dress described as silk, satin or taffeta may be made from silk or from a synthetic woven to look like it; the label tells you which.
• Look at a napped cloth such as velvet under one light. Every piece should be cut with the nap running the same way; a panel that shades differently from its neighbour may have been cut the other way.
• On a patterned or striped dress, check the side seams and the waist seam. The design should meet where seams cross.

Inside

• Turn the dress inside out. Seam allowances should be even in width, flat and free from bulk, with edges finished so they do not ravel.
• Find the bust and waist darts. Each should taper to a smooth point without a pucker or bubble at the tip.
• Run a finger round the neckline. Facings should be invisible from outside and held in place by understitching.
• Check the lining. It should lie smoothly inside, allow you to move, and, if it hangs free, be attached at the hem seams with French tacks (short thread chains).
• Work the zip several times. It should slide easily without catching, with straight stitching and no zip tape showing.
• Look at the hem from outside. Hand stitches should be evenly spaced and inconspicuous; a fused hem is acceptable if it does not change the hand or look of the cloth.

Red flags

• Puckered seams or darts, or uneven stitch lengths along a seam.
• A facing that rolls to the outside at the neckline or armhole.
• A zip that snags, or tape that shows.

How do you wear a cocktail dress?

Wear a cocktail dress to early-evening and evening events with a dress code below white tie: a cocktail party, a lounge-suit evening, or a black-tie event if the dress is fitted and reaches very slightly below the knee.

• Lounge suits, evening. Debrett’s calls a smart or cocktail dress with sleeves or a jacket a suitable choice. Going straight from the office, a smart dress under a fitted jacket works, and the jacket can come off in the evening.
• Black tie. A fitted cocktail dress to very slightly below the knee, with a little décolletage. Debrett’s says long, or at least not very short, is usually best, so the cocktail dress is the alternative rather than the default, and it advises an evening coat on top.
• White tie. Not suitable. Debrett’s requires full-length formal evening dresses and rules out shorter dresses, however smart.

Timing is part of the definition. The dress began as clothing for the six-to-eight hour, so an invitation for early evening is its natural setting. The historical set of gloves, a small hat and costume jewellery is optional today. At black tie, Debrett’s suggests fine or costume jewellery (but not tiaras), an elegant evening bag and black or sheer tights.