Nothing this fall will say sexy, skimpy, and sizzling like the Hérve Léger by Max Azria bandage dress.
Thanks to Azria - the man behind the girly BCBG collection and the more ethereal Max Azria line - the rebirth of the curve is dominating Hollywood.
Red carpet regulars such as actress Diane Kruger, models Elle Macpherson and Beth Ostrosky, and singer Rihanna have all been spotted wearing the dress. It's also a favorite of Beyoncé, Rachel Bilson, and Victoria Beckham.
Even Philadelphia fashionistas have been choosing Leger's body-sculpting spandex that holds it in, pushes it up, and smooths it out.
But if you think the above-the-knee, low-cut, form-fitting look is only for summer jaunts, your style sense needs a little tweaking.
This year, the fall Hérve Léger collection is an amalgam of earth tones - from forest greens to grays and coppers. For ultimate richness, Azria opted for monochromatic metallic embellishments. And ombre patterns - one color melding into another - skew toward smoky rather than neon.
"Fall began with an exploration of texture and embellishment," Azria said in an e-mail. "From there, this vision of an urban jungle began to take shape."
French designer Hervé L. Leroux - who worked under Karl Lagerfeld and Diane von Furstenberg - came up with the bandage dress after wrapping seam bindings around a dress form like an Egyptian mummy. It was the mid-1980s, and the body-sculpting minimalist look spearheaded by Tunisian designer Azzedine Aalia was in its infancy.
The original bandage dress - also called "body-con" - was seamless and made from the same fabric used in girdles, what today we more affectionately refer to as shapewear.
Although it may appear that you need a perfect body to wear it, a little jiggle is not a big deal thanks to the dress' super-strong suck-in quality. In its original heyday, the dress was a must-have for the fashionable Studio 54 crowd.
In 1998, the BCBGMAXAZRIAGROUP purchased the Hérve Léger fashion house, but the look was almost forgotten until Azria introduced the line at the fall 2008 runway shows. These days, Hérve Léger by Max Azria is available in boutiques from Paris to Beverly Hills; in Philadelphia, the dresses will be carried at Boyds starting this month.
Other lines, including Bebe, have since copied the dress. In some cases they feature more pliable stretch material, or use tiers and ruffles to give the illusion of bands.
The success of the look's revival makes clear that those of us with less-than-perfect bods should have the self-assurance to show them off.
As long as we have somewhere to go.
"The dresses have the ability to help a woman feel confident and attract attention in a way that she might not be used to," Azria said. "That kind of power is both decadent and enticing."