Evening Gown

An evening gown is a long flowing women's dress usually worn to a semi-formal or formal affair. It ranges from tea and ballerina to full-length. Evening gowns are usually made of luxurious fabrics such as chiffon, velvet, satin, organza, etc. Silk is a popular fibre for many evening gowns. Although the terms are used interchangeably, ball gowns and evening gowns differ in that a ball gown will always have a full, flared skirt and a strapless bodice; in contrast, an evening gown can be any silhouette—sheath, mermaid, A-line or trumpet shaped—and may have straps, halters or even sleeves.

It corresponds to both men's semi-formal wear for black tie events and men's formal wear for white tie events.

Read more about Evening Gown:  History, White Tie Occasions, Black Tie Occasions, Crafting, Alternatives To The Gown

Famous quotes containing the words evening and/or gown:

    Television ... helps blur the distinction between framed and unframed reality. Whereas going to the movies necessarily entails leaving one’s ordinary surroundings, soap operas are in fact spatially inseparable from the rest of one’s life. In homes where television is on most of the time, they are also temporally integrated into one’s “real” life and, unlike the experience of going out in the evening to see a show, may not even interrupt its regular flow.
    Eviatar Zerubavel, U.S. sociologist, educator. The Fine Line: Making Distinctions in Everyday Life, ch. 5, University of Chicago Press (1991)

    Find out the peaceful hermitage,
    The hairy gown and mossy cell,
    Where I may sit and rightly spell
    Of every star that heaven doth show,
    And every herb that sips the dew;
    Till old experience do attain
    To something like prophetic strain.
    These pleasures Melancholy give,
    And I with thee will choose to live.
    John Milton (1608–1674)