Line

Term that indicates the cutting style chosen for a garment, but it takes on different meanings according to its qualifying adjective — straight, flared, wide, fluid, tubular, etc. — and the noun which translates the quality of a particular line into a precise image. Already in the mid-1800s the definition “Princess Dress” was circulating: this was a robe which, uncut around the waistline and with deep folds opening down to the hem, is closed in front with a row of small buttons. It was popular with princesses (from here the definition) and in the court of the French Empress Eugènie, and it often returns to fashion. The princess line is as constant as the “Corolla Line,” which represents the extreme rebirth of crinoline, the skirt widening like an open corolla, and with a very squeezed waistline: this form of dress was reintroduced by Dior in 1947. The “Egg Line” was typical of skirts in the first decades of the 20th century: it swells as it rises from a narrow bottom, and the hem gathers up the material. The 1950s were characterized by lines developed over several phases, from the Bag Line (1950) and Tent Line (1951), both designed by Balenciaga, to the Trapeze Line (1958) by Yves Saint Laurent. Contrary to its name, the Bag Line has a rare balance of shapes, descending in a straight line from the shoulders to the hem, tightening at the knees and ignoring the waistline. The Tent Line originated as an overcoat, with tiny shoulders and a collar, then flaring open; its shape was taken and used in Summer dresses and light Summer coats. The Trapeze Line also flared from top to bottom, ending at knee level, the back soft and loose from shoulders to hem. In the 1950s certain lines were referred to by letters of the alphabet, for example, Dior’s H (1954), with a high front, waistline low down on the hips, and marked by a horizontal band; Dior’s L (1955), which gradually widened from the shoulders and waist to form the oblique sides of an imaginary triangle, the hem forming the third side; and Dior’s Y (1955), these were very thin dresses, with the shoulders given large, open collars or, vice versa, if the Y is upside down, tunics with deep vents at hip height. In this sequence of alphabet letters, the most emblematic line of a particular period was the S line, which summed up, in the late 1800s, the condition of women as a whole: they were locked in a corset which, worn low around the chest, emphasized both the breasts and the bottom, and was further accentuated by large skirts that created the two curves of the figure.