And this lot really must be kidding
By Vanessa Friedman Fashion Editor for FT.com
Published: April 1 2006 - FT.com
At the moment, if you walk down Sloane Street in London on a sunny day, Easter parade dressing on your mind, you will see hanging in the window of luxe children's store Bonpoint an exquisite little Easter dress, all white broderie anglaise, delicate puffed sleeves and a ruffle at the neck - the kind of dress to excite visions of innocent poppets gambolling in the idyll of childhood. If you wander a little further south, however, and stroll past the Chloé shop windows, you are liable to see, well, exactly the same thing, albeit bigger. It's the kind of dress to raise questions about grown mutton dressed up as lamb. And before you ask, no, this is not an April Fool joke. This is spring/summer 2006: the season of the baby doll.
Also known (by those who find even uttering the words "baby doll" somewhat unseemly) as "the new volume" and "the trapeze dress", the baby doll - a generously A-line, mostly above-the-knee frock with a notable lack of waist and overabundance of skirt - first made a (re)appearance a few seasons ago but has only recently reached critical mass.
There were baby dolls at Chloé in the form of broderie-anglaise white dresses with short ruffled sleeves and necklines, flounces at the hem and appliquéd flowers; at Burberry, where Christopher Bailey showed stiff gold silk faille and loden sequin empire-waist versions; Miu Miu, where Miuccia Prada also used white lace for a naive, child-like effect; Calvin Klein, where Francisco Costa combined the two in empire-waisted floaty white frocks; and perennial baby doll champion Anna Sui, who produced some of the most successful styles - again, in white lace. Although it has been embraced by the glossy magazine editorial world and championed by retailers, it's still impossible not to wonder: can designers seriously expect any woman old enough to have (and dress) her own baby girl to adopt the baby doll?
Of course they can. "We've been coming off a few seasons of what were essentially very frilly, whimsical, girlish silhouettes," says Christopher Bailey. "The A-line silhouette is still feminine but it's also actually much more streamlined than what we've seen before. It has movement but it's not restrictive or uptight."
"It's delicate and romantic but has an urban edge," says Damian Shaw, collection director at Chloé. And, "I think they make women feel feminine but rather secure," says Costa.
In other words, as far as the guys who dreamed this up are concerned, the baby doll is not either too baby or too doll for a grown woman - one who presumably is interested in conveying a sense of self-respect, self-sufficiency and self-knowledge - to include in her wardrobe (though Shaw does admit that "some dresses were inspired by children's wear"). For the gentleman designers, it's about celebrating the ability of women to be secure in their femininity.
One sex's theory is one thing but the opposite sex's practice is entirely another. "Initially, there was some resistance to the baby doll shapes," acknowledges Sojin Lee, buying director of the internet retailer Net-a-Porter, which currently stocks all the baby dolls. "Women weren't sure how to wear them in a grown-up way. But over the last two-three seasons there's been a movement towards people becoming more experimental in their dress. They've been looking for the next thing, and this is it. Besides, it is really the easiest shape to wear - a lot easier than all the cinched waists that have been going on."
Ah, there it is. If in fashion, as in most things post-Marx, every thesis gives rise to its antithesis, then the baby doll is the natural response to the boned, curve-creating 1950s cocktail suits that were the last major fashion trend. Indeed, if there's any decade they reference, as both Shaw and Bailey acknowledge, it is the 1960s. They've let the air in and the stomach out. And the extremity of the proposition, what with the gathers of fabric falling in loose pleats from the bust and the classically childish fabrications, is a kind of palette/wardrobe-cleansing, as hobble skirts and corset tops get swept away on a tide of silk faille and cotton sateen.
"The Chloé versions are the purist baby dolls," says Lee, "and that works for their customer because that brand was the catalyst for the whole thing. They made commercial clothes sexy and their customer has now been educated to see that most of what they offer is accessible." Net-a-Porter sold out of all their Chloé baby dolls practically before they hit the site. The waiting list started the day after last October's show. "But there are other more modified options. And it all depends how you wear it."
"You need to see a body under the clothes, otherwise you just look big," says Bailey. "It's the difference between a sexy trapeze and a sack, and it's human nature: no one wants to look like a sack. So you need to anchor the dress somewhere." Hence his empire waists, small shoulders, and even bell-like skirts, which can be offset by a shrunken sweater or narrow jacket. "You get the silhouette but you still feel slim," he notes. "Plus, you can keep your arms covered."
"I went to a party the other day," says Lee, "and saw a woman who had to have been in her mid-40s wearing a baby doll dress, and she looked fantastic because of how she put it together. She wore it with a skinny tuxedo jacket, sleeves pushed up, some big cuffs, and some wedges, so it refined the shape. From the side, you could see the volume but it didn't overwhelm her because of the jacket. And some commercial versions are cut longer so if you don't like your legs, they're covered. Most women, after all, feel comfortable showing off their collar bones and their ankles."
"I bought the Miu Miu dresses and I really love them," says Ikram Goldman, of the Chicago boutique Ikram. "The pieces will be a little longer for production, making it an easy sell. My customers, and especially my thirtysomething women, are not afraid to dress editorially; they embrace being different."
Still, though the dresses are supposed to convey "lightness and ease" as Costa says, all designers advocate adding some grown-up gravitas in the form of accessories. As both Lee and Bailey point out, it's the details and the contrast they provide that can make a baby doll work - or even take a baby doll to work - whether it's a narrowly cut cardigan, jacket or platform shoes. Bailey also added big brass buttons to his trapeze coat because "with their military connotations, they gave it a sense of strictness".
Apparently, when it comes to "the new volume", let's just accept it and say no one is fooling around.
I want it! 
