The Power Dress is having a moment, so why do so many women own a frock like this?
The British woman’s love affair with The Dress has known no bounds in recent years. The pandemic before the pandemic was that wafty Zara spotted frock and during lockdown itself, it was H&M’s uplifting pink picnic dress which became ubiquitous.
Now that we’re getting back to our offices and fixing up for a return to proper workwear, the style dominating the zeitgeist is the power dress. This is less about seeing every woman in your local coffee shop wearing a certain kind of design, but wherever you look on TV or in newspapers, it’s the PD which pops back at you.
When The Apprentice returned to our screens earlier this month, it appeared that a troop of stylists had bought a job lot of PDs for the female contestants. In one shot, Stephanie Affleck, Kathryn Louise Burn and Brittany Carter are lined up like Crayola crayons in the back of a car, each sporting a PD in a different distinctively bright shade (tangerine, royal blue and Cadbury purple respectively). Amy Anzel, a beauty entrepreneur, has been showcasing her wardrobe of PDs over on Instagram, with figure-hugging versions in magenta, scarlet and burgundy sourced everywhere from designer Escada to high-street Hobbs while Carter proudly showed off her sleeveless Karen Millen number.
Meanwhile, the PD has come into its own in Westminster in recent months, poised to fill the power vacuum created by wranglings over just how many festivities took place at Downing Street in lockdown, because a party dress this well and truly is not. Two of the most influential women in government, Nadine Dorries and Liz Truss, have been making the PD their own lately, from the Culture Secretary wearing a bright red one to reveal the BBC’s licence fee freeze last week to the Foreign Secretary deploying hers on diplomatic missions both abroad and at Chevening, her country residence.
The Power Dress, for the uninitiated, has its origins in the galaxy dress craze of the Noughties. The creation of Roland Mouret, the galaxy dress was a curve-enhancing, brightly coloured, serious but sexy design which seduced women of all fashion proclivities, from Victoria Beckham and Nigella Lawson to Carol Vorderman and Cameron Diaz. In many circles, this love for the bodycon-and-bold formula passed, but the irrefutable impact which a PD affords hasn’t been forgotten by an army of women who operate in a man’s world and still adore its suit-like practicality and sleek polish. Now that they’re returning to the office, the PD is back on top.
Jennifer Ison is the founder of Jennifer Anne, a label which specialises in smart workwear for petite women and the source of the £239 red ‘Beiwen’ dress which Dorries, one of her loyal customers, wore in the Commons.
“It’s one of our bestselling dresses and as it’s trans-seasonal, it’s popular all year round. It’s a very elegant, plain dress crafted from a very soft fabric which has the perfect amount of stretch in it to mould to your body and show off your curves. The three-quarter length sleeves are particularly flattering for petite women while a v-neckline allows you to wear a necklace,” Ison explains. “If you’re a woman in the public eye you need to look and feel professional. It’s interesting that Nadine picked red to wear for one of her big moments in the Commons – it makes you feel confident and you exude confidence when you’re wearing it as well.”
Ison, who worked as a lawyer before establishing her brand in 2017, used to rely on dresses like this in her own work. “You walk into a room feeling good, it makes you noticeable without being shocking. When you see the pictures of Nadine in the House of Commons, she stands out. As a woman, particularly when you’re smaller, that’s important.”
Although Ison had to pivot her business to creating more relaxed jumpsuits and loungewear during lockdown, she’s now noticing “a growing appetite” for smart workwear dresses again. “Women want to distinguish how they were dressing to work at home from what they’re wearing back at the office – it’s drawing that line between work and home again,’ she reflects.
Another power dress connoisseur is Kim Winser, a former M&S and Aquascutum executive who now specialises in designs for professional women. She calls her £179 version, quite simply, the Miracle Dress. Truss is a fan and chose the dependably elegant number on the day she was appointed Foreign Secretary in September.
“Our chief dress designer, Barbara, was passionate about developing a combination of fabric and fit that meant, when a woman put on a Miracle dress, she looked and felt gorgeous whatever her figure. Months and months of work went into fine tuning every element to ensure a flattering fit,” explains Winser, who says that the design, which comes in new colours every season, is loved by Olympians, doctors, lawyers, sports champions, bankers and presenters as well as several of Truss’s fellow MPs.
Another of Truss’s go-to styles is the £225 Forever Dress by Karen Millen, which she owns in several shades. Bonnie Godsil, the label’s head of design, calls the frock “the epitome of power dressing” and says it has been a top performer for more than five years. The brand has introduced tweaked versions in shorter lengths or without sleeves to cater to demand. “Not only has the style been a best-seller in the UK, but also over in the US where it’s a firm favourite with news anchors,” adds Godsil.
As with so many dress crazes, the passion which many women feel for their power dress is met with a raised eyebrow from others. The PD is synonymous with a sharp workwear aesthetic that has come to feel stereotypical, perhaps even outdated.
“It’s a hangover from that First Lady look –one tone, one message. In politics, everyone reads into everything, especially when you’re a female politician so it’s easier just to wear one block colour than putting a whole outfit together,” notes Isabel Spearman, founder of the Daily Dress Edit and former Downing Street adviser to Samantha Cameron.
“It’s very much a Melania Trump look, the consumer market reacted to that. Block colour gives that feeling of power and a sense of being very grown-up, but with a little imagination they could look even more modern,” Spearman concludes. A more nuanced approach to power dressing may be available, but it seems that the power dress isn’t being fired any time soon.
