2 weeks Ago By Vogue
Penelope Tree “It’s often said we should never meet our heroes in the flesh, but when, at the age of 13, I met Truman Capote, and blurted out to him how much I loved his writing, he was extremely kind, and we struck up a warm acquaintanceship – I cannot in any honesty claim it was any closer than that. Nonetheless, three years later I received the invitation to his 1966 Black and White Ball. Betsey Johnson, a recent graduate of the Pratt Institute, had just come on the scene as a designer, and I asked her to make the dress I had in mind.
All I knew was it had to be black, bare and based on the dance clothes I loved. She exceeded my expectations. As soon as I put it on, I knew Betsey’s creation would change my life.
It was perfectly simple, but also quite daring for the time. The morning after the Ball, I received a call from Diana Vreeland asking me to do test shots with Richard Avedon for a possible story in Vogue . My modelling career was launched, thanks to Betsey’s wonderful dress.
” Neelam Gill “Dressing ‘sexy’ has always made me a bit uncomfortable. To be sexy, I’ve always thought, you need to wear something revealing, something that shows a lot of skin. But then I wore a high-necked, long-sleeved, floor-length Alaïa dress – I was covered head to toe in the sleekest black jersey, not an inch of flesh showing – and it was the sexiest I have ever felt in my life.
This was September 2023, the night of Vogue World: London during Fashion Week, and I had to rush to the show from a catwalk fitting. I was so late, I only had enough time for minimal hair and make-up: a slick pony, a wash of brown on the eye, some sculpt on the cheek. I didn’t even wear mascara.
.. and, still, it was the best I’ve ever felt.
Womanly, confident, secure. For the first time, I felt like me. That night, thanks to that dress, my style altered fundamentally.
And it brought with it a deeper change too: to my sense of self.” Diane von Fürstenberg “My way of designing clothing is very much about attitude. Body language and the ability to move is so important – I never want to feel like a prisoner inside a dress, which is why I designed the wrap in 1974.
But my favourite, most memorable, party dress of all time was designed by the Italian haute couturier Roberto Capucci. My then husband, Prince Egon von Fürstenberg, took me to see him when I was a young woman in the 1970s. The gown was totally magic – long and white with two bands that covered your breasts, and embroidered with different coloured ribbons.
I loved that dress so much, but wondered, really, how many times could you wear it? So I dyed it black, and had equally as much fun wearing it to a ball thrown in Texas by Cecil Beaton . What I really loved the most about it, though, was that it didn’t have a personality bigger than mine. Because above all, you have to make sure you are the star, not the dress.
” Harris Reed “New Year’s Eve 2020, and I’m at a party in LA with my friend, the incredible artist Ariana Papademetropoulos. I’m wearing a Bob Mackie tunic – picked up in my most favourite kind of vintage store, the Sherman Oaks Antique Mall – over a pair of white Harris Reed flares. Something about LA that night – the way the fog rolled through the hills, the spinning mirrorball at the party – felt like a beautiful silver dream.
I remember US Vogue ’s former West Coast director Lisa Love was there, and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler . I was just dancing the night away, shimmering and shimmying with all my friends, but also these creatives who I always dreamt that one day I might find myself alongside. My look made me feel invincible – wearing vintage always does – somehow allowing me to go and speak to all these designers and editors and photographers and people I’d looked up to.
That tunic gave me a gilded confidence. I’ll never forget it.” Maya Jama “Halterneck, cutout, sexy as hell: I’ve worn some incredible dresses, but none has had the impact of the black Mônot maxi I wore last year on Love Islan d.
Maybe it was its simplicity, or the way it perfectly fit, but I’ve never felt more confident in a dress. The reaction online was insane – within hours of me wearing it, it had completely sold out. It was, quite literally, a showstopper.
When I bumped into the designer, Eli Mizrahi, in Ibiza this summer, he was like, ‘Who is this girl?’, because the dress had gone so viral. He told me that had never happened before. It was crazy how one single appearance could become such a significant fashion moment for me and for the brand.
It’s proof that the right dress at the right time can be a true life- or career-defining thing.” Aaron Rose Philip “I have been so privileged to wear life-changing clothes at life-changing events throughout my career as a model and activist. But, as a Black, trans, Disabled woman from the Bronx and Antigua, I never imagined that life would take me to anything associated with words ‘Donatella’ and ‘Versace’.
However, last year, I was invited to attend the Versace Icons party in New York, cohosted by Anne Hathaway. I wore a pink skirt-suit ensemble – I love everything about pink, its softness, its tenderness. But it’s a colour that also has power.
And I’ve never felt more powerful – and gorgeous and sexy – than I did that night, in that pretty candyfloss two-piece.” Tish Weinstock “Picking a single dress from a lifetime of parties is no mean feat. A standout? The caviar-hued Roberto Cavalli gown I wore to Charlotte Tilbury’s 2022 New Year’s Eve party, forever memorable as it was the night I guessed I was pregnant.
Bursting out of its beaded bodice (a telltale sign of being “in pig”, as the Mitford sisters would say), it was the perfect way to round off the year I got married. A dress that eclipses even that one was a red velvet bias-cut autumn/winter ’96 Galliano gown I sourced online, which I wore to Camille Charrière’s 2021 winter wedding. It’s rare for me to wear something so vivid, but there’s a decadence and mystery to red velvet that speaks to something primal in me.
It reminds me of the first party dress I was ever allowed to choose for myself: a crimson, crushed-velour number with long sleeves and the words “blue moon” written across it in crystals. I wore it on Christmas Day aged seven and it is one of the earliest instances of independence I can recall, and certainly the dress that sparked my lifelong love affair with fashion. The Galliano gown – I realise – is simply the adult incarnation of that childhood dress, the one that remains the most life-changing of them all.
” Ivy Getty “When I get dressed up, I’m only ever doing it for myself. The whole idea of, say, a ‘revenge dress’ is one I hate. Wear the dress for you – nobody else.
In fact, some of my best outfits have never been seen by anyone – bar, sometimes, my immediate family. Take the embroidered, feather-trimmed 2020 Saint Laurent playsuit I wore to Christmas dinner at my grandmother’s house when I was 25. Even though I knew everyone else would be in sweatpants and Converse and be in bed by 10pm, I planned my look meticulously: I wore these little pearl drop Chanel earrings from my godmother and a pair of vintage ’80s YSL velvet kitten heels, finishing it off with some velvet gloves that I probably got on Amazon.
Everyone looked at me like I was crazy, but I’d never felt cooler. As a child, I was a loner, and getting dressed up was my form of escapism. Now, as an adult, my favourite outfits are still the ones I wear just for me.
And this one felt like my purest self-expression yet.” Sarah Harris “How life-changing are we talking? The really good evening dresses make you believe you can be anyone. I still remember how good I felt, aged seven, in a white puffball party dress (and how badly I mourned it when it met a bowl of chocolate ice-cream).
In my 20s, without question, it was the yellow – yes, yellow – Oscar de la Renta silk, strapless, full-skirted ballgown that I wore to the AngloMania Met Gala in 2006. I was a guest of Mr de la Renta and wearing that dress to The Met, and then on to Bungalow 8 until the small hours was everything and more. Then there’s the black, backless, oil-slick, sequinned, long-sleeved, high-neck tube dress by Celia Kritharioti that I wore to the 2019 Fashion Awards.
I have another favourite floor-skimmer by Kritharioti that’s covered in silvery crystals but is as baggy as a sweatshirt with slouchy sleeves that extend beyond the knuckles. I wore it to a festive cocktail party I cohosted at Mark’s Club; its USP is that it was as comfortable as it was spectacular. I could have happily slept in it.
And finally, it’s always the last dress I wore. At time of writing, this is a black Emilia Wickstead column gown, very Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and something I imagine wearing when I’m 80, living in a lateral apartment on Ennismore Gardens in Knightsbridge with a weekly flower subscription and drawers full of diamonds and pearls. Like I said, a great party dress will make you believe you can be anyone.
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