The mermaid dress first appeared at the end of the 19th century, more specifically in 1877, at a time when fashion was transitioning from maximum width to maximum narrowness. Women wore corsets that embraced the hips (corset coraza) and the back of the legs, which limited their movement and forced them to walk taking small steps. In the early 1880s, magazines began to promote suits with puffed flanks that were made with ‘canastos’, which indicated a much more marked silhouette at the waist and a tail quite similar to a fish’s tail.
In the early 1880s, magazines began to promote suits with puffed flanks that were made with ‘canastos’, which indicated a much more marked silhouette at the waist and a tail quite similar to a fish’s tail.
However, it was not until 1930 that designer Marcel Rochas popularized the mermaid dress on Haute Couture catwalks. One of the most iconic moments of the mermaid silhouette was when Swedish model Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn was photographed by her husband Irving Penn for the September issue of Vogue 1950. From then on, mermaid dresses became the favorite design of Hollywood actresses of the 50s, from Marilyn Monroe to Rita Hayworth and Dorothy Dandridge.
The mermaid dress is still one of the top choices among women. Nowadays, the design is worn for red carpets, parties and weddings. Its sensuality combined with femininity, never loses its elegance and has become a safe choice to every occasion. Yolancris presents in its latest collection Origin 2022 the Boho Soul line, which is composed of various mermaid silhouette pieces. Here are some of them:
Not only for their wedding days, celebrities also choose this design for personal and professional occasions:
