Are back to front dresses the next biggest trend?

Recently a growing number of high profile figures have been caught wearing their clothes the wrong way round. Is this an emerging style trend we should be sitting up and taking notice of? Or merely an embarrassing mistake needing to be laughed off?

The “trend”, if it can be called that, first emerged at the 1999 Oscars when Celine Dion intentionally wore a Dior tuxedo backwards. Giving the singer her dues, the suit was meant to be worn backwards, however subsequent celebrities who have copied her example lack this excuse.

In 2009 Angelina Jolie wore a Max Azaria gown the wrong way round to the SAG awards. The actress claimed she had intentionally worn the dress the wrong way round, to make it a more flattering style. However, considering backwards it looked shapeless and drab this seems a floored argument. Likewise this year Sigourney Weaver topped many a worst dress list at the SAG awards this year after wearing a Lanvin gown in reverse. Whilst Weaver can legitimately claim the gown was altered with the intention of being worn as she did, since the skirt remained the right way round, in doing so the fit of the dress was lost, and it and stopped being a stunning evening gown and became as one critic described ‘a beautifully cut trashbag’ which did nothing to flatter the actress.

Whilst Jolie and Weaver claim they intended to wear their clothes backwards, others more plausibly laugh it off as a genuine mistake. In 2010 Amanda Seyfried wore a BodyAmr dress back to front to a film premiere  The dress still looked stylish the wrong way round, and flatted the young star unlike many backwards style choices. However rather than claiming to be improving the design like some the actress claimed ignorance, laughing it off, suggesting the zip should have given her a hint – and in doing so didn’t come across as an egotistical actress with an overly inflated sense of what makes a stylish outfit choice.

BBC Breakfast’s Susanna Reid was the latest figure to have committed the reverse clothing faux par last week. Her much complimented M&S dress she wore last Wednesday morning was the wrong way round, and in showing her embarrassment at her mistake, she also managed to look less foolish or outrageous in backwards clothing. Indeed if she hadn’t highlighted her error or Twitter most viewers would have been ignorant to its occurrence.

So how can backwards clothing sometimes look good, and if it’s filtering down the celebrity strata is it slowly catching on? In reality no clothing looks good backwards; if it did it would have been designed to be worn that way, cut to flatter that way and therefore not be backwards at all. We all occasionally put things on the wrong way round, and indeed occasionally fail to notice. However to then claim that was the intention is ridiculous, demonstrating either ignorance about style or arrogance of knowledge higher than the designer. Whilst we will no doubt all continue to occasionally put a garment on the wrong way and not notice until half the day has passed, only Hollywood’s egotistical elite will attempt to justify it as a style statement, ensuring this bizarre craze doesn’t ever become a fashion trend beyond the red carpet. 

And before all hope is lost, lets remember that the early 90s trend for backwards fitted caps has been reversed, so at worst this backwards evening gown trend should be gone within another few decades....