Hervé Léger's Bandage Dress Makes Viral Comeback: Is Gen Z Reinforcing Old Beauty Standards or Rewriting Them?
Searches for 'Hervé Léger dress' have increased by 1303 percent on Depop over the past three months, while searches for 'bandage dress' have risen 1280 percent on the platform during the same period. In the past year, the e-commerce company reported a 58 percent increase in interest in 'body-con' silhouettes. On Google, searches for 'bandage dress' also reached a new peak in the first week of June.
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The formfitting dress, created by designer Hervé Léger, was considered the uniform of '90s models. The silhouette, first made of dozens of elasticated bandage-style strips of knitted cloth, debuted on Léger's fall 1992 ready-to-wear collection and became an immediate sensation, WWD reported. By the early 2000s, the dress had become a staple in celebrities' wardrobes, seen on Kim Kardashian to Rihanna.
With its popularity also came the controversy. Due to its body-hugging appeal, the bandage dress was often seen as flattering only on certain body types — typically slim, toned figures, which reinforced narrow beauty standards. With the rise of body positivity and inclusivity trends in the 2010s, the style lost its trendy status.
In 2025, the bandage dress is experiencing a resurgence alongside the rise of a new skinny culture, fueled by the popularity of Ozempic and similar GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, as well as social media trends such as SkinnyTok — a diet culture that is widespread on TikTok.
For fashion psychologist Jennifer Heinen, the bandage dress revival can be both a reinforcement of traditional beauty standards and a subversion of them. It all depends on 'who's wearing it — and why,' she said.
'The dress still carries traces of a past that celebrated thin, toned bodies as the ideal. But Gen Z is remixing that. We're seeing curvier bodies, nonbinary wearers, and size-inclusive reimaginings of the silhouette. The intention has shifted,' Heiner told WWD. 'Gen Z's version of the bandage dress isn't about aesthetic obedience. It's a visual paradox: compression that doesn't conform, sexiness without apology. When styled with visible softness — fuller bodies, body hair, flat shoes — it becomes a disruption, not a reinforcement.'
Embracing something that was once controversial can also be an act of rebellion, Heiner said. According to her, another reason that can explain the bandage dress renaissance, besides Gen Z's obsession with Y2K trends, could also be the need for containment.
'The bandage dress is a literal and symbolic form of containment: it holds, hugs, grounds. In a world that feels chaotic, that tactile pressure can be soothing,' she said. 'In fashion psychology, we call this 'sensory anchoring,' the way tactile pressure can ground a person emotionally, much like a weighted blanket. Gen Z is craving emotional texture in what they wear. Not just aesthetics, but sensation.'
Hervé Léger has utilized TikTok to connect with its newfound audience, garnering thousands of views with videos showcasing different bandage dress styles. The brand reinterpreted the viral silhouette for its 2025 and 2026 resort collections.
Michelle Ochs, the creative director of Hervé Léger, has been vocal about Gen Z's love for the once-controversial silhouette on social media. 'Bandage dress is back in a big way,' Ochs told Bspoketv on Instagram. 'I'm so excited. I think there's a lot of nostalgia tied to it. I think there are new people discovering it. It's timeless. And we're ready to get dressed and get out,' she said.
Just as it happened in the 2000s, celebrities are now also embracing the silhouette, with Hailey Bieber, Kaia Gerber and Alix Earle leading the pack.
'The key is conscious styling; choosing how you participate in the trend, not letting the trend dictate your worth. The bandage dress was used to compress. Now it can empower, but only if the choice is yours,' Heiner said.
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Launch Gallery: Hervé Léger's Bandage Dress: Through the Years on Runways & Red Carpets [PHOTOS]
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'It's interesting where they've pitched it at market level; they're saying they're targeting the professional player and young professionals who can afford those price points.' While the full range will be released in autumn, the initial clothes and images certainly give a flavour of both the style and cost of FIFA 1904. The lead image on the range's website shows a chap with a hoodie underneath a jacket. Hey, maybe Infantino did oversee this after all. 'It's interesting they've taken a classic tailoring approach to the jacket and re-fabricated it in what looks like a sportswear fabric, a nylon or a polyester,' expert Collins says. 'It's the same for the women: a loose-fit, classic jumpsuit. It looks really quite smart and sophisticated, quite grown up. 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'The colour palette is blacks, blues and whites, meaning you could wear these pieces with the other pieces in the range, again meaning it's 'catch-all'. 'They're designed for longevity — you don't need to update the graphic tee every season of the year. They're saying it's an investment piece, the opposite of what you get in football when clubs want you to buy three or four new kits every year.' The FIFA blurb that accompanies the range is quite something. 'The modern uniform for the next generation of player,' FIFA says in conjunction with fashion label and retailer VFiles. A post shared by VFILES (@vfiles) 'More than just a wardrobe, FIFA 1904 imbues football's character and culture into expertly crafted garments that are both innovative and original. 'The laws of the game are the same for everyone, but it's what a player does with these constraints that defines their character. For FIFA 1904, character is playing the game with class and elegance while experimenting with the rules, breaking barriers and seizing opportunities, so that those who wear our garments can find their feet and discover their own style of play.' Come again? 'Every garment range 'promises' something,' Collins says. 'It could be improved performance, or an innovative approach, but it's really difficult to know exactly how innovative this range has been with its fabrications. Advertisement 'Some brands do actually innovate with fabrics and invest in the textiles. Whether it's true in this case, I don't know. Looking at the garments on the website, they are fairly standard fabrics in terms of cottons. If you look at the hoodie, for example, it says French Telly, which is a standard sportswear fabric. 'They do also mention sustainability but it's difficult to know how they imagine that. Or perhaps that means they're seeing sustainability more as longevity of wear.' For £49 a cap, you'd certainly hope to get a few wears out of it.
