Swing Dress

Design ideas for swing dresses.

Put a swing in your step with this season's essential dress shape that flows in a beautifully feminine fashion. Not only is this style super flattering, but it is a wardrobe staple that will last all year round. Team your swing dress with a pair of towering wedges or for those lazy days or dress down with a pair of cut out ankle boots and a fedora to finish the look. For an effortlessly beautiful style this season, go for monochrome magic or choose a printed swing dress in floral, check or tartan prints, with embellished detailing for nights out or long sleeves for day time.

Summer is the perfect time to rock some cool swing dresses and channel your inner pinup. You still haven’t? Come on, summer ain’t gonna last forever! We love dresses, especially dresses that are airy, fluffy and that are fun to wear. Did you ever have a swing dress when you were a child? We’re sure you did. How fun was it to make your skirt twirl? You can do it with your swing dress too. We bet you’ll have just as much fun as you used to!

When we say swing dresses we refer to the dresses that were worn to dance Swing. But what is swing dance? It’s a group of dances that developed with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s-1950s. The most famous swing dance is lindy hop, a popular partner dance that originated in Harlem in 1927 and is still danced today. These dance styles required comfortable clothing to dance in. Women didn’t change their clothing style so much because dresses with a tight bodice and free-flowing skirts were already in fashion. These dresses made swing dancing really easy, even if some precautions were needed. Women didn’t wear much jewelry and they didn’t wear rings at all, because they could be dangerous while dancing. Women also always wore bloomers, because skirts often went up during a spin or other movements.

By the mid-1930s, the Swing Era had begun and would last until shortly before the close of the 1940s, when War came and conservation came. By then, norms limited women’s outfits in so many ways, from shoes to the actual shape of dresses. This is when pencil skirts and dresses fell off and gloves almost disappeared from women’s wardrobes.

Technically the swing dress is a knee-length dress, fitted at the waist and flared so that it swings with the dancer. The 1940’s version of the swing dress tends to use less material because of fabric rationing, and in the 1950’s, skirts got bigger and fuller to reflect the fit and flare fashions. For a 40’s look, pair your swing dress with some medium heeled shoes and seamed stockings, and for a 50’s look, add some bobby socks and flatter shoes. Are you ready to swing?

See examples and ideas about how you want to find yourself in the proper swing dress swing dress, take a look at our swing dresses application. Now download our app and enjoy swing dress.