And now? Wrap dresses occupy a more interesting category, as do skinny jeans, ankle boots, and long cardigans. Once a wardrobe staple, it has now become a closet cleaning staple. Mr. Sanders may not be able to find it in a New York department store, but it's easily available in Ohio thrift stores, said Kathleen Martin, who lives in Columbus and makes YouTube videos about thrifted items.
“Specifically, I think it has a similar feel to the business casual of the 2010s.” She used loose fabrics and messy prints. Sometimes stores misclassify clothes as gowns rather than dresses, Ms. Martin added. In 2020, in the early months of the pandemic, Vogue suggested wearing these clothes:
Danielle Vermeer, CEO of a thrift app called Teleport, once found a Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress for $5 at a thrift store. The abstract black and white print was part leopard and part oil spill. In 2022, she sold her dress for $40 and consigned it to The RealReal, who paid $12 for it. (Today, the new DVF wrap dress starts at about $378.)
“I think since the pandemic there has been a greater openness to trying different styles in an office or professional setting,” said Vermeer, 35, who lives in Washington. In the 2010s, I was working in a very masculine, formal office. This was especially true with my first couple jobs. I used to wear wrap dresses, pencil skirts, and button downs. That was the uniform. But now, the office attire of people in their early 20s has really changed.”
Workplaces are filled with employees who are more casual and more interested in dressing to express their style.
“I still love this dress because it’s very chic and easy to wear,” Ms. Vermeer said of the wrap dress. The next day, she sent the photos to the Salvation Army in Chicago, where she found a Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress for $29.99. (“It’s not my size, but it’s in great condition,” she said in a text message.) “But I can see how on a 23-year-old today it might look very ‘Girlboss,’” she said. Young women in the 2010s who embraced corporate feminism but then declined as quickly as they grew.
Allison Bornstein, a stylist known for helping people identify their personal style keywords and, among other things, offering FaceTime appointments with people looking to clean out their closets, had another theory about young people's aversion to style.