Chloe Shower Dress

A part of the Left Bank intellectual crowd who shared her mother’s fondness for fashion, Chloé cofounder Gaby Aghion was inspired to empower independent working women to break from the conservative dress of the 1950s and don more free-spirited, feminine designs that were appropriate for both work and social life.

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Aghion established her fashion house in Paris in 1952 with her business partner Jacques Lenoir to develop her own source of income, separate from her husband’s. She was one of the first designers to embrace the concept of luxury prêt-à-porter as a middle ground between haute couture and off-the-rack for the masses.

In 1964, Aghion hired a fledgling Karl Lagerfeld as a designer. The pair would bring Chloé into the international spotlight with their easy yet glamorous lines that drew such fans as Jacqueline Kennedy. Lagerfeld became the staff creative lead at Chloé in 1974 and stayed with the brand until 1983, during which time he became known for his romantic silk dresses that continued Aghion’s feminine vision and were a favorite of the “rich hippie” set. In 1988, then-unknown designer Martine Sitbon took the helm of Chloé for several years before Lagerfeld returned as creative director from 1992 to 1997, drawing all of the iconic 1990s supermodels to his runway.

After his second departure, Chloé tapped yet another early-career designer to lead the label: a punky 25-year-old Stella McCartney, who earned the position not because of her famous lineage (she’s the daughter of Paul and Linda McCartney), but because of her fashion education at Central Saint Martins and work experience on London’s Savile Row and at Christian Lacroix. Following McCartney’s exit to launch her own line in 2001 — not long after introducing the diffusion label See by Chloé that year — Chloé named Phoebe Philo to the post.

Under Philo’s leadership, Chloé expanded from women’s clothing to an accessories line — including handbags — and debuted the legendary Paddington bag in 2005. The padlocked satchel, notorious for weighing a hefty three pounds while empty, became one of the “It bags” of the decade (the brand’s double-handled Marcie holds its own in that regard); the entire 8,000-bag initial production run sold out via preorders.

Philo left Chloé in 2006; her successors include, among others, Clare Waight Kelle and Natacha Ramsay-Levi, who announced that she would be departing the house in late 2020. Part of Chloé’s decades-long lasting influence — which we’d like to speculate would appease Aghion greatly — is the brand’s dedication as a career-launching platform for newbie designers, particularly women.

Browse an extraordinary inventory of vintage Chloé handbags, day dresses, shoes and more on 1stDibs.

With entire museum exhibitions dedicated to examining fashion designers and their creations, we’re finally recognizing that costuming is art. Evening dresses over time have conveyed specific statements about social class, position and beliefs. Fashion is a powerful means of self-expression, and sophisticated vintage evening dresses and gowns by our favorite couturier play no small role in making us feel wonderful but, perhaps more importantly, making us feel like ourselves.

In the 16th century, dresses and gowns were so important that England's Queen Elizabeth I defined rules about what dresses women could wear — guidance included long skirts and fitted bodices. Forward-thinking designers have responded to this history.

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel reimagined traditionally masculine garments for feminine shapes, and her elegant evening dresses and gowns promoted comfort and grace in women’s wear that had been dominated in the previous century by layers of fabric. Christian Dior's gowns celebrated luxury and femininity in the late 1940s — and gave to women the gift of glamour they’d lost in the miserable years of the war. French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent introduced innovative and highly coveted dress designs in the 1960s while at the same time challenging sexist stereotypes about which members of society could wear tuxedos.

Works by unconventional British designer John Galliano — featured in houses like Givenchy and Dior — redefined limits that dressmakers faced in terms of material, construction and vision during the late 20th century. From his embroidered absinthe-green Oscars gown for actress Nicole Kidman to the iconic sleeveless Dior newspaper dress that Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw made famous, Galliano’s intricate and multifaceted work is reliably collectible and newsworthy

Today’s designers target an increasingly broad audience with their boundary-crossing work, and their tendency to play off of each other’s ideas means that every walk down the runway is also a walk through an entire history of fashion design and dress craftsmanship.

Whether you gravitate toward backless maxi dresses or silk charmeuse gowns by Alexander McQueen or embellished, ruffled floral-print designs by Chloe or Versace, there is an extraordinary collection of vintage and designer evening dresses and gowns waiting for you on 1stDibs.