Fans of voluminously exaggerated sleeves are probably rejoicing as, though highly impractical, impossibly voluminous sleeves have been reappearing on the fashion runways. Yet, they may not be something desperately new.
Schiaparelli tried her hand at this trend as early as 1951 and Alexandre Vauthier last year included a shirt with exaggerated sleeves in his S/S 19 Haute Couture collection.
Similar sleeves also appeared on a white top in Victoria Beckham's A/W 20 collection (that had some echoes of Tom Ford) and on Roksanda Ilinčić's runway (both collections were showcased during London Fashion Week).You wonder if we will see more billowing sleeves on the fashion runways in Milan or Paris in the next few days.
We will discover it soon, but, in the meantime, we should point out that the undiscussed master of the voluminously dramatic slevees remains Madame Grès who designed around the '70s stunning silk paper taffeta long gowns with an empire waistline in black, navy blue and muted earth tones (a Madame Grès design in this shade was part of the "Heavenly Bodies" exhibition at Met's Costume Institute). The gowns were characterised by huge sculpted sleeves that billowed out from the shoulder, creating a cape-like effect and contrasting with the linear choir robe-like body of the dress. 