Structured Cocktail Dresses Are All In

While ready-to-wear fashion is moving towards effortless comfort and minimal design, eveningwear is taking a totally different approach, opting for structured, colourful glamour.

We’re living for the neon fantasies from designers like Mariam Seddiq, Oroton and Romance Was Born, all using elements of fashion eras past to create something new.

Here are some of our favourite structural eveningwear moments from AAFW 2022 so far.

This divine emerald green Oroton gown (above) is giving full babydoll vibes, with the tight upper bodice, starched bows and floor-length hemline. The dress itself is super structurally made, which gives it voluminous movement and a really beautiful shape in the skirt.

This style is super reminiscent of ’60s and ’70s formal dresses, but done in this modern way, with a more modern material, brighter colouring and much more simplistic — it gives fancy party vibes without being over-the-top.

This Romance Was Born dress (above) is EVERYTHING. It’s giving 2013 Katy Perry meets Harry Styles at Coachella, meets Mardi Gras, and we’re here for all of it.

The textural element of this dress with its 3D swirls matched with the metallic rainbow fabric makes it totally unique. We can see this strutting down the red carpet — or into a garage party bc it’s never too late to be extra — right now.

Now this Mariam Seddiq gown (above) is giving Marilyn Monroe-on-a-night-out vibes, like full 1950s Hollywood glamour energy, not only with this soft baby blue, but with the silhouette and huge bow moment. We are truly obsessed with this newfound celebration of all things Old Hollywood.

This Mariam Seddiq number (above), is giving ’60s mod shift dress energy, with a touch of extra neon and body, making it a more modern take on the mod fashion era that took over the 1960s. The print, on the other hand, is super ’70s. We love the mesh of eras to create something totally new.

Wynn Hamlyn‘s take on the cocktail dress is more minimal while remaining structural and formal. This canary yellow dress (above) is crafted to perfection, with purposeful gathering to give it shape and a flattering figure-hugging cut which firmly slots it into the dressier category. However, while a beautiful dress for a party, you could also dress this look down, and it would look equally as perfect.

Oroton‘s formal dresses followed the same dress shape but with different colours and patterns. With a print made up of enlarged stamps, the above is super cute and mod while still remaining current. The pinks, greens and reds, matched with the chocolate brown bust and train, add class to quite a novelty print. This is a dress we’ve never seen before, and we love that.

This Mariam Seddiq piece is breathtaking. There were audible gasps as it glided down the runway at AAFW 22, and understandably so. It looks like something out of a ’50s Italian film, complete with drama, texture and emotion.