National Dress Day Date in the current year: March 6, 2024

A dress is a garment that consists of a skirt and a bodice. The bodice is usually attached to the skirt, but garments consisting of two matching pieces that create the effect of a one-piece garment may also be referred to as dresses. Dresses are traditionally worn by women and girls.

Dresses evolved from tunics – basic garments worn by both men and women throughout Europe and parts of Asia since ancient times – around the 11th century. These early dresses were similar to tunics but had a tighter fit on the upper body and arms. More elaborate dresses emerged in the 16th century, when European women from the middle and upper class began to wear dresses consisting of multiple pieces. In the 19th century, women’s dresses began to be classified by the time of day or purpose.

For a long time, dresses and skirts were the only acceptable clothes for women. Today, pants are perfectly acceptable for women to wear in most of the Western world, but dresses are still very popular as both formal wear and casual wear. Even those women who prefer to wear pants in everyday life often choose dresses for special occasions such as proms or weddings. Formal and semi-formal dress codes typically require women to wear a dress.

National Dress Day was created in 2016 by ASHLEYlauren, an evening wear clothing line with a focus on dresses for special occasions (prom dresses, social dresses, pageant dresses, cocktail dresses, bridal gowns). The line’s founder Ashley Lauren Kerr came up with the idea when she realized that she had a lot of fond memories wearing dresses: her prom, first date, first time competing in a pageant, first job interview, first red carpet event, and so on.

Similarly, most women probably have a memory or two they associate with wearing a beautiful dress, and these memories deserve to be cherished and celebrated. National Dress Day is meant to empower women by having them relive their dearest dress memories and encourage women to celebrate their femininity by wearing a dress.

There are many ways to celebrate National Dress Day. Of course, the simplest one is to wear a dress. It doesn’t have to be your fanciest and most expensive dress; choose the one that is comfortable and fits the dress code if your place of work or study has one. If you want to wear one of your nicer dresses, consider having a night out with your girl friends.

Other ways to celebrate include going dress shopping, looking through your closet and old photos to remember dresses you wore on memorable occasions like prom, college graduation or wedding, sharing photos of yourself wearing your favorite dresses on social media with the hashtags #NationalDressDay and #DressDay, asking your friends to share their fondest memories associated with dresses, giving your old dresses a new life by having them slightly altered or simply experimenting with accessories, hosting a dress swap for your friends, or taking a pledge to wear a new dress every day until you run out of dresses.