We did it first: sequins
Fashion is putting on the glitz once more as sequins are back, just in time for the Christmas and New Year party season
Roll on the razzle dazzle… It’s that time of year to put on your glad rags and, wonderfully, one of our favourite party fashions is back. This Christmas, sequins are adding sparkle to the catwalks and on celebrities’ red carpets, bedazzling both party dresses and funky blazers.
The likes of Nicole Kidman, Lulu, Shirley Ballas and The Crown actress Claire Foy have already proved they’re big fans by sporting sequined outfits. Also with Strictly Come Dancing flaunting show-stopping sequined costumes every week, it’s no wonder we’ve got a taste for glitz once more.
But sequins are nothing new. In fact, while we remember wearing them in decades past, their history goes further back to ancient Egypt as the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb revealed he’d been buried with robes embellished with circular discs made from gold that looked remarkably like our modern-day sequins.
The word sequin derives from the Arabic for ‘coin’ and throughout history these discs were sewn onto garments to represent wealth.
Eventually, in the Twenties, sequins acquired a more decorative function as dresses bedecked with them made wearers look like a moving column of light on the dancefloor. However, back then sequins were made from gelatin so they’d melt if you hoofed and perspired a bit too much! A few decades later, the acetate sequin we have today was invented so there was no longer the worry of them melting!
Sequins then became the preserve of the MGM starlets, beloved by the likes of Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich, who referred to them as her ‘illusion’ gowns – silky dresses embellished with strategically placed sequins. They were also an eye-popping choice for the red, split-leg dresses Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell wore in Gentleman Prefer Blondes and, more modestly, for the beautiful blue gown Doris Day wore in Love Me or Leave Me. Just like Tutankhamun, here sequins meant status.
The London boutique Biba was next to make the fashion famous as it draped sequins over stars from Twiggy to Mick Jagger as part of their staple decadent look. Soon everyone was at it, most notably The Supremes, whose skin-tight sequined dresses, worn to maximise their impact under bright television lighting, became a key part of their look – even if their dresses did reportedly cost up to $2,000 each!
Away from the cameras, stars chose sequins for partying, with celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor and Liza Minnelli photographed in sequins while heading into the trendy Broadway nightclub, Studio 54, in the Sixties and Seventies.
And as the disco era rolled around, sequins became everyone’s portable, sartorial disco ball, their popularity cemented by stars including Michael Jackson, Tina Turner and Abba.
Now, 30 years on from its last heyday, the shimmer of sequins has lured in a new generation of fashionfollowing magpies, keen to light up the party season the glitziest way there is.