Women's Glamorous Dresses Guide

Every long formal dress in our gowns guide is elegant; a glamorous dress wants more than elegance. Glamour is the deliberate end of the formal spectrum — the dress as event, built from shine, sheen and silhouette and worn to be looked at. Where the gown guide classifies garments, this guide is about an effect, and any length or shape can deliver it: the sequinned cocktail dress can out-glam a plain ball gown twice its size.

The word has a pedigree — it descends from the Old Hollywood of the 1930s, when studio lighting turned satin and sequins into a visual language for stardom — and the red carpet keeps the language current. A glamorous dress is simply one that speaks it fluently.

The Ingredients of Glamour

Shine is the first ingredient: sequins, beading, metallic thread, lamé, and satins and silks with a liquid sheen. Shine catches light in motion, which is why glamour is a quality of photographs and entrances rather than of sitting still. Colour is the second: black, white, red, gold and silver carry most glamorous dressing, with jewel tones behind them; prints rarely do the job, because glamour reads as a single strong statement.

Cut is the third: glamorous dresses commit to a line — the column, the mermaid, the one-shoulder drape, the deep neckline or the open back — and hold it without decoration competing for attention. When shine and cut argue, cut should win: a plain, perfectly fitted dress in a rich fabric out-glamours a busy sparkly one at the wrong size.

Wearing It: Styling Glamour

Glamour is styled by subtraction. With a high-shine dress, jewellery goes quiet — one piece, worn properly — hair and makeup take the polish up rather than the drama, and shoes and bag fall in line behind the dress. The classic error is competing statements: chandelier earrings, a statement necklace, a glitter bag and a sequinned dress read as noise where each alone reads as glamour.

Fit is the unglamorous secret underneath. Glamorous fabrics — satin especially — report every strain and wrinkle, and the style depends on the dress looking poured rather than worn. Budget for the alteration when you budget for the dress; it is part of the garment's price.

Occasions and Degrees

Full glamour has its venues: galas, premieres, formal weddings (as a guest, under the house rule of never out-shining the bride), award nights, milestone birthdays, New Year's Eve and the opera's opening night. Below them sits the wide middle ground of parties and dinners, where glamour is dialled — a metallic knit instead of full sequins, a satin slip dress instead of a beaded column.

The test is the room. A glamorous dress should be the brightest thing in its photograph and merely the best-dressed thing in its company; if it is winning arguments with the occasion itself, a degree of shine comes off. Glamour, worn right, looks effortless — which is the most practised effect in fashion.

Storing and Caring for a Glamorous Dress

Glamorous fabrics punish casual care. Sequins and beading should never meet a washing machine: spot-clean, or use a dry cleaner experienced with embellished garments, and tell them about loose beads before they tell you. Satin and silk crease where they are folded and shine where they are ironed hot, so store the dress hanging in a breathable garment bag, padded at the shoulders, and steam rather than press. Metallic fabrics tarnish against rubber and some plastics, which is why the bag should be cotton, not the cleaner's plastic. Handle the dress by its inner structure when you lift it — a beaded dress carried by its straps stretches at exactly the points its glamour depends on. Looked after this way, a glamorous dress is one of the few garments that can be worn for a decade of occasions and still make its entrance.

Photos