When the internet broke down making fun of Rihanna's Guo Pei bright yellow "omelettey style" gown at the Met Gala 2015. True blue fashion-worshippers sat down and took notice of Jennifer Lopez (in Versace Atelier) and Kim Kardashian's (in Roberto Cavalli) barely backless dresses that made their already noteworthy booty look even more delicious!
As Anne Hathaway says, "It's business in the front, party in the back!"And true to her statement, some of Hollywood's biggest stars like Naomi Campbell to Julianne Hough and even Sarah Jessica Parker, have time and again, effortlessly ditched the cleavage-revealing low-cut look for a skin show from behind.
Today's blog is about one such dress that I recently shopped from the extremely popular online shopping destination, Missa More. The store has a wide range of gowns, each one distinctly different than the other and the dress which is perhaps their biggest pride found it's way to my heart and then straight to my wardrobe, is the Royal Blue Backless Gown that's made of Pleated Satin. It's fun. It's crisp. It's beautifully backless.
Here's the first peep.
So this is how the gown looks from the front.
And....Wait for it...
Here's the much awaited aspect of the dress, i.e., the back...
I know, right? Isn't the gown a complete stunner?
I have been diligently planning a shoot purely and exclusively wearing this dress for weeks now but due to the excruciating and mind numbing conspiracy of the Rain Gods. The shoot went on getting delayed till my friend and I decided to go for it no matter what on our terrace.
Since the gown is unlike any quintessential western dress. I planned to give five different looks that aptly stand by my blog's title.
So step away Madame Cleavage, it is the year of the Backless!
LOOK 1A.)
I bifurcated the first look into 1A and 1B.
In Look 1A, I teamed up the gown with a sky-blue coloured denim style Jeggings that complimented the dress perfectly. If there was a separate heaven made for Fashion, I swear the match between these two was made right there.
I completed the look with a gold-stone neckpiece and a golden bracelet watch. The stilettos just did the rest of the job!
Look all set or a bit messy. You just can't go wrong with this one.
LOOK 1B.)
In Look 1B, I just took the neckpiece away and replaced it with a Big Brown Belt. The silver stones around the metal clutch adds a bit of shine as the belt efficiently teeths right on my slender waist just below the bustline and gives the dress a separate skirt and blouse look. For girls who wanna show off their washboard waistline. This look is for you. <3
Jeggings: Flipkart.
Neckpiece: Jewels By Naomi.
Belt: Talking Threads.
Watch: Titan Raga.
Shoes: Nell.
LOOK 2.)
In this look, I wore a Beige coloured Cargo Trouser and went for a complete accessory makeover.
Except for the golden shoes, (okay you can deduct one point for me being lazy. Lol.) I switched on to silver stone-studded ornaments.
I teamed up the look with a pair of black and white chandelier earrings, which you can see below and wore three Meena-Designed Kadas or simply Bangles.
You can also find a stone studded big square ring on my right hand, which is an absolutely favourite piece of mine and as you can see in the pictures below, it beautifully goes along with this dress too.
Cargo Trouser: Purple Blaze, Shreeram Arcade, Kolkata.
Earrings, Ring and Bangles: New Market, Kolkata.
Shoes: Nell.
LOOK 3.)
This look was significantly different than the previous two.
I did away with the idea of just wearing the gown with full length trousers and coupled it with shorts instead. The original idea was to wear the dress with a pair of faded shorts but since I didn't have one at the moment. I wore my brand new Candie's Bright Blue Hot Pants and it went amazingly well with the whole gown.
Oh yeah, that's how I rocked my shorts!
On my left hand, I wore quite a number of junk colourful bangles and attached what looked like an old brooch on the nape region of the dress.
The earrings that you see were big round silver-plated rings although I did replace them with a cute butterfly hairclip on the picture that you see below (left).
Blue Shorts: Candie's.
Brooch: Gariahat, Kolkata.
Bangles and Silver Earrings: New Market.
Hairclip: Juhu, Mumbai.
Shoes: Nell.
LOOK 4.)
This is the classic look of wearing the gown with a pair of white pants.
Remember the article on Earcuffs? This is the first one I wrote about.
My most favourite and highly dramatic. The single ear, earcuff makes a highly engaging style statement altogether.
(To revisit the article, Click Here:)
Here's a closer look. (Below)
In this look again I wore a watch. A silver one this time coupled with a black floral handcuff on the other arm.
Golden Earcuff: Amazon.
White Trouser: Jabong.
Black Handcuff: Local Flea Market.
Watch: Fastrack.
Shoes: Nell.
Okay. Now you might be wondering. Why did I suddenly go for such a drastic change as this?
The thing is, although it is the year of Backless.
Hands-down.
"The Cleavage" is like Samantha Jones in the Fashion World. She might go OTT sometimes but a life without her is as dull as living without your favourite music. Or book. Or maybe your favourite little black dress.
The Cleavage demands attention and love like every woman and when I found out the amazing little trick that this magnificent piece of satin can be worn with the slit on both sides, I instantly went ahead with this look, thus keeping the much awaited balance between the cleavage-backless' tug of war.
All Hail Fashion Peace!
I created the entire look wearing a heavy neckpiece to compliment my collar bones and plunging neckline that peeped through the lacy lingerie. And ultimately summed it up with a floral printed light blue trousers. Again from Candie's.
Neckpiece: Juvalia.
Trouser: Candie's.
Watch: Fastrack.
Lingerie: Enamor, La Lingerie.
Shoes: Nell.
Hope you liked all the looks of my favourite backless gown. And if you get yourself a piece of garment that's as crazy and adventurous as this one. Don't forget to think of every possible mix-and-match opportunity.
You never know what goes perfectly with what. The jeans that lies at the dusty old corner of your closet might be the perfect spouse to your new dress. You never know.
So keep it minimal. Keep it stylish. And go confidently bare. On back.
Trust me, you'd never go wrong.
Photo Courtesy: Neo Studios.
- Rini.