The Strapless Dress

The beginnings of the strapless dress began with the beginning of people wearing clothing.  As we can see in the hieroglyphics from around the 15th century BC women would wear dresses in the made of lightweight and transparent material.  Some of their dresses only had one strap holding them on.  As time progressed so did fashions.  Dresses evolved becoming more modest around the meridian of time, covering women from neck to toe, and then once again fashions became more and more revealing.  In the portrait of A Charlotte from the 17th century AD we see a tight fitted, corset like dress, with a broad neckline that almost falls off the shoulders.  Her chest is raised and the dress had puffy sleeves coming up to her shoulders.  Fashions continued to shift from modest to more revealing.  In the 19th century AD we see a portrait of a woman who's dress also is tight fitting and broad necked but her sleeves are very short showing off almost all of her arms and shoulders.  This style was very popular during this era.  By the 20th century AD the sleeveless dress had made it's debut and was wore by the fashion icon of the 1960's Jacqueline Kennedy.  Today the strapless dress continues to grace runways and gain in popularity.  

This is a mural taken from a tomb dating back to the 15th century BC.  The popular clothing styles of the time can be seen here.

This is a painting of Charlotte von Hessen-Kassel around 1650.

In this painting from 1883 by Toulmouche, we see the broad neckline and short sleeve style of that time.

This is a photo from 1962 of Jacqueline Kennedy wearing a strapless dress made by Guy Douvier.  

This is a contemporary version of the strapless dress.  It is a Cynthia Steffe dress made for her spring 2009 RTW collection.