Revived ‘70s Dress Is No Plain Brown Wrapper

Many monsters, aliens, vampires, serial killers and homicidal dinosaurs have gone bump in the cinematic night since I first saw Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho.” That scary classic seems almost tame now that Freddy has terrorized Elm Street repeatedly and horror movies have grown increasingly graphic.

In 1972, a soft jersey wrap dress that bared a little cleavage and clung to the body like paint seemed to be the sexiest dress in the world. It traveled well, could work for day or evening, and gave legions of young women a reason to ditch their bell bottoms. By 1976, 5 million dresses had been sold, and their creator, a glamorous Belgian who married an Austro-Italian prince named Von Furstenberg, landed on the cover of Newsweek.

Now, in the parlance of fright flicks--they’re baaaaack. But after a few decades of seeing bare, short, tight and transparent dresses from designers like Gianni Versace and Tom Ford of Gucci, the sweet little wrap hardly seems the most erotic dress in the room anymore.

The classic is still appealing. The daughters of baby boomers who wore them when the Rolling Stones were young discovered the dresses in thrift shops a few years ago and began wearing them to clubs. The designer reissued the dress for fall at the urging of her socialite daughter-in-law, Alexandra Miller Von Furstenberg, who at 25 is the same age Von Furstenberg was when she started.

In August, Saks Fifth Avenue began carrying the dresses exclusively. The first time around, they sold for well under $100. Now they are priced at $190. Defying the rule that if you wore a style the first time it was popular, you’d be too old to participate in its revival, women nostalgic for the dress that launched a dozen hot dates wrapped them on like they were caressing an old friend. That is, if their daughters let them. More often than not, offspring shopping with Mom shoot “Don’t even think about it, Mother” looks, and buy the dresses for themselves.

Lori Rhodes, the 35-year-old director of public relations for Saks, acquired her first wrap dress in September. “I wanted the one with the collar,” she said, “because I thought it looked really ‘70s. I wore it to the office, and I felt really girlie in it. I’m so used to wearing all black all the time, but my wrap dress is in a fuchsia print, and everyone comments on the pretty color whenever I wear it.”

Rhodes was lucky to snag her dress. Saks was flabbergasted at its instant popularity. Personal appearances for Von Furstenberg in Saks’ Atlanta and Chicago stores, scheduled for late September, had to be postponed a month because the store had sold out of dresses.

Von Furstenberg showed her spring collection in New York last week. The silk jersey wrap dresses, with collars or without, in two-piece versions and transformed into very ‘70ish jumpsuits, appeared in a multitude of prints. There were animal prints, from big giraffe spots to mini-leopard markings, prints made to resemble wood grain and cane, reptile patterns and, of course, a print that scattered the letters of Diane over a solid ground.

The best-looking styles in the spring show were those that answered the “What’s next?” question. A halter style in a barely perceptible dotted batik print on black was a different kind of wrap. Those with a feeling for history, like Lori Rhodes, like their wraps undoctored. But to this observer, the more the dresses strayed from the originals, the more attractive they were.

A collarless, short-sleeved red batik dress was just different enough to look fresh. And dresses that didn’t wrap at all, like a bias-cut silk georgette sleeveless number with a draped neckline, would be a perfect summer dress, even if it had no connection to the Von Furstenberg family tree.