The first time we watched The Wizard of Oz, we weren’t thinking much about the clothes.
We were too busy covering our eyes - surely this is the scariest film you can show a five-year-old?
Celebrating its 80th anniversary this month, the 1939 classic about Dorothy Gale (played by then 17-year-old Judy Garland) in the magical land of Oz is now so deeply embedded in our pop culture psyche.
Decades on, it is now impossible to ignore Dorothy’s style legacy.
The iconic blue dress created by MGM studio’s costume extraordinaire Adrian (who designed gowns for Hollywood's leading ladies that defined an era, including Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford) became one of the most iconic looks in film history. Worn, famously, with a pair of red sequinned slippers.
Fast-forward nearly a century and fashion just can’t get enough of the nouveau feminine dress code this season. The exaggerated sleeves. Picnic gingham. Prairie dresses in every possible fabric, colour and print. A preoccupation with high necklines, ruffled details, floor-sweeping lengths and long sleeves a la Dorothy Gale is making a comeback once more.
Thanks to the likes of cult Insta-players, including NYC label Batsheva, The Vampire’s Wife (loved by the likes of Sienna Miller, Florence Welch and Alexa Chung) and Cecilie Bahnsen, we’re all a bit obsessed with introducing demure silhouettes, ditsy prints and unapologetically feminine dresses into our closets. According to Lyst, searches for prairie dresses have been up 34 per cent since June.
The 2019 update? Think more Joan Jett (with a splice of Victoriana) than Dorothy’s modest aesthetic in the 1930s; less dainty, more punk.
From metallic accents, bold hues and textured fabrics, Dorothy 2.0 is now all grown up (keep in mind the dress Judy Garland wore in the film was, in fact, cut to make her look younger than she was).
To mark the piece of movie mastery on its 80th birthday this Bank Holiday Weekend, we’ll be re-watching the classic in our most Dorothy-worthy frock…or a nightie.
There really is no place like home.
Blue Floral Prairie Dresses To Shop Now
