If club culture is dead, where in the world are people wearing all these bandage dresses?
It’s 2007. You and your friends are getting ready to go out. Rihanna’s “Umbrella” is the number one song in America. The Hills’ second season just premiered. You’re wearing a bandage dress, bump-it hair, and MAC pressed powder. Life is good.
Internet memes aside, what’s old is always new again eventually. Almost 20 years later, mid-aughts style is back in more ways than one. The boho revival is already well underway (thank you, Rachel Zoe!). Jean rises are lower; eyebrows are skinnier; and halter tops are returning to the spotlight. Millennial comeback trends abound, and the latest breakthrough from the era of Red Bull-vodkas and undercut bobs is the going-out look that defined a generation: the bandage dress.
First, a little fashion history. Alaïa may have shown the first bandage dresses on the runway in the 1980s, but Hervé Léger popularized the style we know and love today.
In 1992, the original Hervé Léger bandage dress made its debut as part of the brand’s ready-to-wear collection, worn by ’90s supermodels like Tatjana Patitz. The form-fitting viscose design, made from dozens of bandage-sized strips of fabric sewn together, created a sculpting effect that proved impossible to resist. The New York Times dubbed it “the sexy mummy look” in a 1993 collection review and, according to WWD, it was an almost immediate hit, with sales peaking at $10.6 million. However, it wasn’t until BCBG acquired the line in 1998 that the dress gained popularity in the mass market.
The rest, as they say, is history. When It Girl Lindsay Lohan wore one to the Maxim party in 2007, it was clear that the culture had reached Peak Bandage Dress—and it would be forever associated with the decadence of mid-aughts club culture. Embraced by Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, and Victoria Beckham, the style was ubiquitous at hotspots like Bungalow 8 and Les Deux, known for their celebrity clientele, velvet ropes, and paparazzi shots snapped at their entrances. In Sophia Coppola’s The Bling Ring (perhaps the best depiction of the TMZ-era’s seedy underbelly), Emma Watson as Alexis Neiers dances, takes selfies, and orders bottle service while wearing a magenta bandage dress.
We’re so back. On June 11, Google Trends reported that searches for “Bandage Dress” were at an all-time high, with orange being the most popular colorway (go figure), while global eBay users searched for “Hervé Legér” more than 23 times a minute on average since January. Clearly, every elder millennial’s favorite going-out dress is back in the zeitgeist. But where in the world are people wearing it?
After all, reports and thinkpieces about the death of nightlife are alive and well. Theories about why club culture is fading are going viral. Gen Zers who ignore “grandma culture” and embrace feral girl summer are the exception, not the norm (and have the ragebaited comment section to prove it). Even happy hour is a thing of the past. According to the NYT, we’re a nation of homebodies, a trend that’s seemingly at odds with a skin-tight frock meant for dancing on tables.”Hervé Léger is having a gentle comeback…and we can probably thank Sabrina Carpenter’s vintage Grammys look for that,” says Brie Welch, eBay’s resident stylist, whose client list includes Katie Holmes. “I can see this trend appearing as a bold wedding guest moment, [or] worn as a mini dress with some tough boots for Gen Z.”
If you recall this 2024 viral tweet, Gen Z’s nighttime outfit of choice is lightwash jeans and a black top—not a skintight dress. The generation’s addiction to casual attire and white sneakers has been widely discussed, ranging from their purported lack of knowledge about “office appropriate” attire to the oversized “everything” look popular on TikTok, so it’s shouldn’t be surprising that this new generation sees the quintessential clubbing dress of 2007 as formalwear.
It’s probably not a coincidence that Google searches spiked in June—graduation month and the beginning of wedding season. Even celebrities are wearing bandage dresses in more official settings. Hailey Bieber donned a purple bandage gown in April for the Fashion Trust U.S Awards, designed by Saint Laurent creative director Anthony Vaccarello. And Kaia Gerber wore a sweetheart white bandage midi to TIFF last September. Unsurprisingly, many of the top-searched bandage dresses online (like this House of CB collection and the viral Aritzia style featured on The Bachelorette) are midi-length as well as mini.
Even Hervé Léger itself is leaning into anti-club bandage dressing. “We’re modernizing the bandage with fresh proportions, new fabrications, and refined hardware details, expanding beyond the iconic mini into midi dresses, sculpted separates, and even daywear,” says the brand’s creative director, Michelle Ochs. Scroll through the label’s Instagram, and you’ll find bandage work dresses, bandage evening gowns, and bandage frocks with fringe. “We’re introducing the brand to a whole new generation who’s hungry for this look and silhouette,” the designer adds. “They’re discovering Herve Leger for the first time, drawn to the confidence, sexiness, and power the bandage dress represents, and we’re giving them new ways to wear it that feel relevant to how they live now.”