“No matter how much fashion evolves, the glitter dress will always be a staple – it just serves fantasy like nothing else,” says Georgios Trochopoulos, the man behind Dua Lipa’s spellbindingly sparkly New Year’s Eve look. The eye-watering slashed silver sheath dress would not have looked out of place in the wardrobe of chainmail connoisseur Paris Hilton, who rewore her rhinestoned 21st birthday dress by glitzy king Julien Macdonald some 15 years later during a Marbella DJ set (iconic). This is precisely the point for Trochopoulos, a rising Greek designer setting up shop out of London with the guiding principle: “The shinier, the better.”
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Other celebrities subscribing to the Noughties school of fashion have bought into this fledgling brand’s proviso that glitter and good times win in the face of adversity – or at least Omicron. Miley Cyrus and Kendall Jenner have worn Trochopoulos’s designs which, despite looking like a mere flutter of glitter covering their wearer’s skin, are crafted from delicate knits spun with a clear “fabric”, which clings to the body and creates the illusion of a curved, cinched silhouette. No mean feat for a 20-year-old still in university, but Trochopoulos is part of a wave of young designers paying homage to the bedazzled club look.
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Unsurprisingly, Hilton is a muse of Poster Girl designers Francesca Capper and Natasha Somerville, who pride themselves on being the real-life equivalent of the KiraKira app, which bathes everything in a shimmering sequin-strewn light. “More is more!” shout the pair, who have lots to be smug about. Their chainmail dresses, which drape like liquid metal over the body, are selling like hotcakes. Why? “It’s such a timeless fabric and flatters every single body shape beautifully,” say the London-based duo, who have taken to spraying everything in mesh because, quite frankly, we need more razzle dazzle in our lives – and in our shapewear.
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Like Trochopoulos and his nifty illusion fabrics, Team Poster Girl has finessed a formula that makes their slinky armour surprisingly wearable. “All our chainmail styles are fully lined in super soft logo printed powermesh, and we developed adjustable bra straps a few seasons ago which was a brainwave in comfort and look,” they share. The gold-plated buckle on the straps, inspired by suspender belts, is a clever way of telling Poster Girl dresses apart from the myriad copycat styles now on the scene.
For Retrofête co-founder and creative director, Ohad Seroya, our depleted diaries have not dented the popularity of its slinky eveningwear, because the New York brand believes sexiness is a state of mind that doesn’t require RSVP-ing yes to something fabulous (its brand name is a fusion of synonyms for “vintage” and “party”). “We thrive to evoke a state of emotion in every piece that we design,” says Seroya, who has dressed J Lo in Retrofête’s signature sequin-saturated chiffon which drapes over the body. “When a woman puts on her Retrofête dress, her energy and mood is infectious.” (The flattering, light-reflecting quality of the micro crystals is also no bad thing.)
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The endless allure of sparkle has been well documented, from Paco Rabanne’s era-defining avant-garde paillettes of the ’60s to the liberal use of sequins at Fendace – the monumental Fendi-Versace switch-up – for spring/summer 2022. But how to update your crystal-choked eveningwear in a way that feels fresh and in line with the young upstarts doing disco ball looks?
For Retrofête, it’s about going back to the youth culture at the heart of the millennium bug – as well as securing yourself some big knickers. Seroya has doubled down on the “life-of-the-party” aesthetic with “bright colours, funky patterns, hand-crafted beaded detailing and lots of frills”, while Trochopoulos says it’s the attitude that counts when channelling “sex, fun and [all things] mini”. When life gives us club closures, make your own dancefloor.
