What is a wiggle dress?

[NicolettaRose]

I am just now getting into 1940's stuff ( previously strictly 20's and 30's) and keep coming accross the term wiggle dress, what is this??

 

[Lady Day]

Well, my understanding is a form fitting dress with enough give (a couple of inches or so) so the wearer can 'wiggle' in it, so to speak. I could be totally wrong, but in all my chances upon that term, thats what I take it to mean.

LD

 

[Grace]

Technically speaking, a wiggle dress is a dress that has a bottom hem circumference of less than the hips,with no walking slit or kick pleat.

But the term is used so loosely these days, I've seen in applied to every thing.

 

[NicolettaRose]

Oh I think I just bought a wiggle dress without knowing what it is ( posted in purcheses)

 

[Miss Brill]

When I think of a wiggle dress I think of the little shift dresses that Marilyn Monroe wore. A wiggle dress = a curve hugger.

 

[KittyT]

Yes it is a curve hugging dress with a relatively narrow hem. They are not 40s though, but 50s, and more of a mid to late 50s style at that.

 

[Miss 1929]

And you need a good figure to pull it off! Not for me...

 

[Eliza]

Yes, wiggle dresses are a 50's thing.

Here are examples of a wiggle dress: