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Raw Glamour
When the history of fashion is written from the perspective of the upper classes, the cultural heritage of rural America is ignored. Garments made from the material of flour sacks were a common article of clothing from the 19th through the mid-20th century.Most of us wouldn’t think of a sack as something fashionable. The Parisian public certainly didn’t, in 1957 when Balenciaga’s new silhouette was the sack dress. The dress with its shapeless form turned away from the hourglass look that was popular at the time. Today the sack dress has emerged in all of its glory. The humble flour sack garment has been elevated to star status in opulent fabrics from Prada for the Fall/Winter 2025 season. The anti-body con silhouette sought to move away from sculpted, form-fitting designs, emphasizing freedom of movement and rejecting traditional constructs of feminine beauty. Some of the roomy sack-like dresses were simplified to tubular shapes, loosely cinched at the bust with large covered buttons.
The Raw Glamour moment was seen on models with bed head, and barely there make-up representing women’s busy lives. Of the collection Muccia had this to say, “To work in this difficult moment is really tough,” she said during the backstage scrum, suggesting that a black dress is “very much today. Prada’s Raw Glamour collection stood in stark contrast to the overt displays of luxury seen on other runways. However, with the price tag of a Prada dress one would consider it a quiet luxury.
