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“You Can’t Just Slap Some Fabric Together And Call It A Dress”: 50 Designs So Bad They Deserved To Be Shamed In This Facebook Group (New Pics)
If I learned anything from the countless episodes of Project Runway I watched as a child, it’s that fashion is all about taking risks. Sometimes designs flop, but that’s arguably better than being bland and quickly forgotten. So it seems like many designers have decided to err on the side of outrageous design, and no one knows that better than the members of You Can’t Just Slap Some Fabric Together And Call It A Dress.
Contrary to what the name of this Facebook group says, apparently, you can! But you’re likely to be mocked for it online. Below, we’ve gathered pics of some of the most comically bad dress designs that deserve to be shamed, so feel free to channel your inner Tim Gunn and be sure to upvote all of your favorites (or those that you can’t believe anyone actually wore).
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#2
Daniel Atkins 2 years ago
Somewhere there is and older gentleman wondering how she got her pant up so high and wants tips on how he can do the same.
#3
A C 2 years ago
Tumor wear......when you want to disguise you tumor and make everything look like a tumor.
Cat Chat 2 years ago
When you don't have enough time to get to the doctor for all the red carpet occasions. Priorities.
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QuirkyKittyGirl 2 years ago
I'm not sure which is worse - the blistered shower curtain dress, or the sky-high plastic wrapped stilettos. 1/5 total fashion fail.
Sergio Bicerra 2 years ago
Chris Rock once said cleqr heels were introduced in a h**ker convention.
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Cindy Brick 2 years ago
Couldn't figure out what to wear... so I grabbed my shower curtain, instead. Like it?
Pattie B 2 years ago (edited)
This is random but I literally just read an article about this dress and its designer. It was inspired by deep sea creatures and is meant to be "anti fashion meets body horror" which... yep, that sounds about right lol https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/58186/1/warts-and-all-ashnikko-bubonic-brits-award-dress-latex-fetish-alien-hyrda
The Original Bruno 2 years ago
Me: It's hideously ugly and absurd clothing. || Fashionistas: You have to understand; it's meant as a form of art, not something you would wear out. || Me: OK, so it's hideously ugly and absurd art,
PeepPeep the duck 2 years ago
Needs context, if she’s an alternative person in general it just their grocery shopping dress. I like it.
Crouching hippo hidden panda 2 years ago
Oh gawd my trypophobia is seriously triggered by this
Candi Mathis 2 years ago
OMG, whatever that "thing" is that she's wearing makes her look like she has ginormous "zits" or lumps all over her body. .... whoever told her she looks good in that "thing" should be taken out behind the barn and beat.
PJ Langley 2 years ago
Kinda looks like the old lady in the bath tub's skin in the original Shining movie..
Sandra Bartsch 2 years ago
This is exactly how skin metastases look like … - speaking as a nurse
Izzy Jeanette 2 years ago
looks like the results of getting stuck in the acid rain from catching fire! lmao this is terrible
Famous fashion designer Vera Wang once said, “I want people to see the dress, but focus on the woman." Perhaps that’s why she’s been so successful, because her designs aim to highlight the wearer rather than distract from everything else around them.
Clearly, not all designers have the same mindset, though, or You Can’t Just Slap Some Fabric Together And Call It A Dress wouldn’t have any content. This Facebook group has been around since April, 2020, and it has already amassed an impressive 61k members. The concept of the group is simple, as the rules state that it’s for “dress shaming only”, and the members stay active sharing all of the fashion atrocities they come across from all over the internet.
In a previous Bored Panda article featuring You Can’t Just Slap Some Fabric Together And Call It A Dress, we reached out to the group’s creator, Mary Waldron, and she was kind enough to have a chat with us and provide some insight into how the group began in the first place. “The group name was actually inspired by a comment on a post in the group, ‘That’s it, I’m wedding dress shaming,’" Mary previously told Bored Panda.
"The group was originally just a wedding dress shaming group called ‘You Can’t Slap On A White Skirt and Call it a Wedding Dress,' but over time, as more and more people joined, I decided to allow other types of dresses,” Mary explained. Then in May, 2021, after Mary and the admin team decided the group needed a more inclusive name, You Can’t Just Slap Some Fabric Together And Call It A Dress was officially born.
But this dress-shaming group has been popular since the beginning. “I noticed the group gaining more popularity about 6-7 months after I created it, and it was honestly out of nowhere,” Mary previously told Bored Panda. “I never expected it to be such a big group, but honestly, I should have because at the time, shaming groups were a big trend on Facebook.”
"Looking back, I think the thing about shaming groups in general that brings people together and really resonates with them is the idea that there are things so bad out there that they feel compelled to share them with everyone for a good laugh,” she continued. “Just like when a group of kids in school will see a teacher with a really bad tie and make a few jokes. To me, it’s that same concept, just on a much larger scale, that really makes these groups what they are."
#8
Mary also previously shared with Bored Panda what makes a dress truly terrible, in her opinion. “The dresses I tend to really gawk at are the ones that look like they could fall off, tear, or just completely malfunction at any given moment,” she explained. “But outside of the group, I try to keep an open mind when it comes to fashion because a person’s taste is as unique as their own. At the end of the day, if a dress makes you feel happy when you wear it, then you wear it relentlessly because your body is your own to dress how you want to,” she added.
If you tend to think all of the outfits featured on runways look ridiculous, you’re not alone. Renaud Petit wrote a piece for Medium breaking down why fashion shows are filled with unwearable garments, and he explains that those bizarre pieces we see on models aren’t ever going to end up in boutiques or in department stores. But they can be a great way for designers to express their creativity. “Designers are artists and they wish to express something through their designs,” Petit writes. “As you can easily imagine, a basic T-shirt or a pair of trousers are not deep enough to be turned into powerful artistic supports (unless you decide to write a strong statement on them but that is called ‘punk’ and has been done before and done again a million times). Many of them thus need to be able to create their own sculptures, real artworks that play the role of canvas.”
#15
Daniel Atkins 2 years ago
Did she come out of a tv and because I looked at it. I need to pass it on or she will come after me?
Petit goes on to explain that the looks featured in fashion shows are typically more of a “mood board” for what the actual collection will look like than they are pieces that should be sold on shelves. “This is actually why it is called ‘a show’ and why it is not simply a range of products displayed on still mannequins,” he writes. “It is some kind of dance in a carefully chosen venue, with finely-worked décor and music. The garments you see can be compared to costumes. The audience needs to interpret the moves and costumes to understand what the story is about in a ballet. This is basically the same with a Fashion show.”
#18
“Runway pieces are like muses, they make for some kind of base on which the actual collection will rely on,” Petit continues, in defense of absurd pieces on runways. “Presenting such exaggerated pieces also makes it easier for us to understand what were the real inspirations behind the collection. They sometimes are used to subtly introduce new hints on what the designer wants to do for future seasons. After the show and if the public liked it, an idea may survive and be found in upcoming collections. There is thus another reason why Fashion shows are so weird-looking: they display several ideas from the designer in order to guide them and set the guidelines for future collections.”
#19
RafCo (he/him/ele) 2 years ago
Give my six year old a pair of scissors and your sweater, she'll do this for you. Then she'll claim she has no idea what happened. We have to hide all the scissors in the house.
Robin Givhan also wrote an article for The Washington Post explaining that there’s a good reason for fashion to be so weird. “Is weird fashion simply clothing struggling to be taken seriously as art? Perhaps, if the definition of art is an expression of creativity that aims to provoke an emotional response. But fashion is not the same as a painting or sculpture or ballet. Fashion is a commodity — it has to be worn, it has to live outside of a gallery or theater,” Givhan writes. “It doesn’t have to be worn by everyone. It doesn’t have to be appropriate for the office or the mall or a White House state dinner. You and your cul-de-sac neighbors don’t have to like it. The point is that you react to it.”
#22
“If fashion makes you laugh, good. It means that it has jarred you from complacency. It means it has caught your attention. Now, think about why you laughed. Then ask why. Ask why, again. That’s the starting point of a conversation,” Givhan goes on to write. And I have to say, the photos on this list have certainly gotten a reaction out of me. So even if you hate every single dress here, that’s totally fine. That doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t fashionable… Many of them just also happen to be tasteless.
Is there any chance you would ever wear any of these dresses, pandas? I’m all for a bold choice myself, but I think I’ve got to leave these for the runway models and celebrities who have more money than brains. Keep upvoting the looks you find most atrocious, or so ugly that they’re brilliant, and let us know how you feel about this “high fashion” in the comments below. Then, if you’re interested in checking out even more of these wild dresses, you can find Bored Panda’s most recent article featuring You Can’t Just Slap Some Fabric Together And Call It A Dress right here!
#29
Daniel Atkins 2 years ago
Does that mean after the ceremony they celebrate by climbing lamp posts?
#30
McKenzie LeValley 2 years ago
DESIGNER:what should we do with this extra fabric HER: PUT IT ON MY HEAD DESIGNER: what? HER:DO IT
#33
#38
#39
#43
#49
Brittany Grawe 2 years ago
Why is this here? Yes, it needed to be tailored better, but this is is beautiful.
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What do you think ?
Druklet 2 years ago (edited)
Do some of these look ridiculous to me? Yes. Is the fashion industry on the whole wasteful, evil, over-priced? Yes. But, as Petit said, fashion as an art-form is often not given the respect it deserves. Maybe some of these look a bit crazy and silly, but the work and creativity that will have gone into some of those outfits is amazing. A lot of these were fun, experimental and interesting. Wouldn't it be so boring if everyone just always dressed 'pretty' and 'nice'? I would recommend HauteLeMode on youtube for breakdowns on some of these outfits.
Kat Min 2 years ago
I donÄt understand the point of this thread. Fashion can and should b art and art is not suppsoed to be pleasant and non-objectionable. It is supposed to challenge us - and many of these pieces do. Ok, some just look a bit rubbish. Probably from design students who do not have the budget to creat a truly expesnive version of that. But most of these are cool, in some way or other.
Jolie McCleave 2 years ago
The attention to detail and engineering of these are remarkable! If you're someone that doesn't sew, you have no idea of the effort put in to these and the artistry it takes to create them!
HarperTheCentaur (they/them) 2 years ago
You guys are missing the point. There's practical fashion, which is things people actually wear and buy, and there's art fashion, which is what most of this is. And a lot of them are actually really good as art fashion. The point of art fashion is not really to look "good", it's visual interest. Drama, experimentalism, et cetera; the things about them that look "off" and unfashionable are what make them interesting to look at. Do some of them take it too far? Yes, of course. There's good art and bad art. But most of these are actually really well-done in terms of accomplishing what they set out to do.
Apatheist Account2 2 years ago
As someone once said, the definition of fashion: something so awful that we have to change it every six months.
Snow_White 2 years ago
Most of these are beautiful ideas executed to perfection. This is an artist's vision and there seems to be a lot of people on here who know nothing about art or fashion judging and ripping someone's hard work to shreds. Just because you don't understand the vision, doesn't mean a design deserves to be ridiculed.
Gabriela Cink 2 years ago
This reminds me that guy who made ridiculous outfit and tried to infiltrate to fashion week. And he was successful. He almost died from laugher... :D
Hearthstone Blitzen 2 years ago
i didnt realize this was only dresses so i thought it was ‘weird fashion in general’ and i thought for sure hazza would b here but i’m happy he wasnt bc he always looks great 🙃😉
DA LEADER OF DE SCREAMIN FROGS 2 years ago
i sorta disagree with the title... ive slaped fabric together before and it looked good 😅
Celtic Pirate Queen 2 years ago
I realize the models don't have a choice and a few of these weren't awful, but for the most part they all look ridiculous or downright stupid.
Lisa Bateman 2 years ago
Whoopie looks great. As for the others, some are OK, mostly they're dire and hilarious 😂
Cathy Jo Baker 2 years ago
I'm trying to decide what the reaction would be if I wore any of those to work (I'm a high school teacher)
Snow_White 2 years ago
What are you talking about?! Are you a professional in fashion by any chance, that you know about skills and talent needed to construct most of these designs?
Load More Replies... Druklet 2 years ago (edited)
Do some of these look ridiculous to me? Yes. Is the fashion industry on the whole wasteful, evil, over-priced? Yes. But, as Petit said, fashion as an art-form is often not given the respect it deserves. Maybe some of these look a bit crazy and silly, but the work and creativity that will have gone into some of those outfits is amazing. A lot of these were fun, experimental and interesting. Wouldn't it be so boring if everyone just always dressed 'pretty' and 'nice'? I would recommend HauteLeMode on youtube for breakdowns on some of these outfits.
Kat Min 2 years ago
I donÄt understand the point of this thread. Fashion can and should b art and art is not suppsoed to be pleasant and non-objectionable. It is supposed to challenge us - and many of these pieces do. Ok, some just look a bit rubbish. Probably from design students who do not have the budget to creat a truly expesnive version of that. But most of these are cool, in some way or other.
Jolie McCleave 2 years ago
The attention to detail and engineering of these are remarkable! If you're someone that doesn't sew, you have no idea of the effort put in to these and the artistry it takes to create them!
HarperTheCentaur (they/them) 2 years ago
You guys are missing the point. There's practical fashion, which is things people actually wear and buy, and there's art fashion, which is what most of this is. And a lot of them are actually really good as art fashion. The point of art fashion is not really to look "good", it's visual interest. Drama, experimentalism, et cetera; the things about them that look "off" and unfashionable are what make them interesting to look at. Do some of them take it too far? Yes, of course. There's good art and bad art. But most of these are actually really well-done in terms of accomplishing what they set out to do.
Apatheist Account2 2 years ago
As someone once said, the definition of fashion: something so awful that we have to change it every six months.
Snow_White 2 years ago
Most of these are beautiful ideas executed to perfection. This is an artist's vision and there seems to be a lot of people on here who know nothing about art or fashion judging and ripping someone's hard work to shreds. Just because you don't understand the vision, doesn't mean a design deserves to be ridiculed.
Gabriela Cink 2 years ago
This reminds me that guy who made ridiculous outfit and tried to infiltrate to fashion week. And he was successful. He almost died from laugher... :D
Hearthstone Blitzen 2 years ago
i didnt realize this was only dresses so i thought it was ‘weird fashion in general’ and i thought for sure hazza would b here but i’m happy he wasnt bc he always looks great 🙃😉
DA LEADER OF DE SCREAMIN FROGS 2 years ago
i sorta disagree with the title... ive slaped fabric together before and it looked good 😅
Celtic Pirate Queen 2 years ago
I realize the models don't have a choice and a few of these weren't awful, but for the most part they all look ridiculous or downright stupid.
Lisa Bateman 2 years ago
Whoopie looks great. As for the others, some are OK, mostly they're dire and hilarious 😂
Cathy Jo Baker 2 years ago
I'm trying to decide what the reaction would be if I wore any of those to work (I'm a high school teacher)
Snow_White 2 years ago
What are you talking about?! Are you a professional in fashion by any chance, that you know about skills and talent needed to construct most of these designs?
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