Cage Dress

Anais cage dresses seem to be in vogue these days, although they have been around for thousands of years. The first being worn by women in the Roman Empire, often made of woven lengths of soft linen.  Down through history to the Victorian era and on through the roaring twenties. Many contemporary designers have picked up the ideas of old, and reproduced them into chic, sexy pieces of clothing which are both daring and extremely Haute Couture.

However the term “cage dress” has now been widened to include any garment which includes a panel, or section of cage like design, whether it is a simple black dress with cage sleeves as worn by Rihanna recently, or dresses with cage like skirts favoured by Cheryl Cole and Lady GaGa.

Jean Paul Gaultier, known for his flamboyant styles, featured models in cage dresses on the catwalk during the Paris Haute Couture Week. As part of his Autumn/Winter collection for 2008-09.  Gaultier incorporated cages into coats, capes, dresses, skirts and even the feature bride wore a spectacular white and silver cage veil held on with elaborate helmet-like headgear.

The Couture Rose Cage Dress modelled by Mosh recently, is a creation of very large open mesh like straps, covering the body, and woven with artificial flowers, although I have seen something similar prior to this, in a superb design by the legendary French designer Patrice Catanzaro. He has a cage dress beautifully designed and manufactured in strips of sewn black shiny PVC, decorated with red hearts and black PVC shapes. It can be worn by itself for the more adventurous, or with a black netting under shift for those who like showing what they have underneath, but not to have every detail on a cell phone camera!!

Contribution by Freddy