14 DAY TRIAL // The Herve Leger bandage dress was a red carpet staple a few years ago. It was originally launched in the ‘80s, but only received a boost in popularity when the skin-tight dresses came back in fashion - and, in a matter of months, everyone from A-listers to D-list / wannabe celebrities was wearing a version of it.
The bandage dress was said to be great for any figure because it was tight and offered support where it was needed; according to those who wore it, it functioned like a good pair of Spanx but looked better: it smoothed over bumpy areas and acted as push-up underwear for the breasts and buttocks. It was, in other words, every woman’s dream come true.
If only that hadn’t happened, Herve Leger UK boss Patrick Couderc waxes poetical in a new interview with Mail on Sunday.
Iconic dress went too mainstream, lost class
Couderc says that women with smaller breasts and wider hips shouldn’t even consider wearing the bandage dress, because it’s not exactly meant for every body type out there. In fact, he adds, it’s only meant for slender types. Oldies are excluded too.
So are lesbians, because the bandage dress isn’t comfortable.
“If you’re a committed lesbian and you are wearing trousers all your life, you won’t want to buy a Leger dress. Lesbians would want to be rather butch and leisurely,” Couderc says, in what would best be deemed a sweeping generalization.
He continues, “You women have a lot of problems. You will lose the plot. You will come and you will put a dress on and you’ll be in front of the mirror, like, ‘Argh, I’m so fat.’ Yes, you have a 12th of an inch around your stomach, it’s not really a disaster, and what you’re not noticing is that your cleavage is about two inches too low because you are 55 and it’s time that you should not display everything like you’re 23.”
Elegance and style are dead today
Couderc also has thoughts on other fashion-related topics than the famous Herve Leger dress, which died a very slow and painful death after it became so popular that you couldn’t go out without seeing a version of it or a cheap knockoff.
He believes in the “magic” of pantyhose because it reminds him of a time when it was the mark of the upper class woman. He believes any woman who wants to be seen as elegant and classy should wear pantyhose in public, but alas, these are dead concepts these days.
Couderc includes a word of advice to his female clients too: buy the right size underwear. Visible panty lines, when the panties cut into the flesh and creates a line that becomes visible through the dress or pants, is one of the worst fashion faux-pas, and he wishes more women would pay attention to not making it.