22/06/2026
Babydoll dresses like this version from 1966 are back on trend. They're also, once again, at the centre of a moral panic. Loosely defined by their trapeze silhouette and short hemline, the style has a long history that is heavily entangled in gender politics.
From functional beginnings to lingerie, and later pop-cultural moments in the swinging sixties and 1990s grunge, the babydoll has long been a site of moral panic. Most recently, pop singer Olivia Rodrigo’s pastel-blue version in a music video sparked a wave of online backlash, proof that the silhouette still reliably triggers scrutiny of women’s sartorial choices.
As Matthew Velasco writes for , such backlash overlooks the subversive history of the dress: "At its core, the babydoll dress is an act of defiance. Upon its invention, it pushed against the hyper-feminized aesthetic of the ’50s, where tea-length hemlines and cinched waists reigned supreme (think Christian Dior’s New Look.) In the ’90s, it took on a more subversive meaning when artists like Gordon and Love wore it to juxtapose the edge of their music with overtly feminine styling....Like Rodrigo, these women challenged the idea that overt femininity exists only to be consumed by or catered to the male gaze."
Image: Yellow minidress with gold trim, home sewn by Judy Sherriff in 1966.
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