question for a novel about obvious designer garment

[TheseWomen]

I will be entirely upfront, and say that this is for a novel, rather than pretend otherwise!

I have a 30something male character who has been at a City banquet in the 2000s which has featured rich Hooray Henry/Buller-style bad behaviour (burning 50s, harassing staff etc).

He needs to describe a drunk 20something woman doing something humiliating on all fours while wearing a designer dress, but he has to know it's a designer dress -- how could he know the designer? Would a Gucci dress (just as an example) have a recognisable label inside the neck if I had it unzipped, or partly unzipped?

The designer doesn't matter, I just need a way for a man who isn't particularly well-informed about women's clothing to be able to recognise that it's a designer garment.

Could also be shoes rather than a dress, only I doubt most men are going to be able to recognise Jimmy Choos or Louboutins at a glance.

Thanks in advance!

The red soles of louboutins would be an a fairly obvious one, no?

It had occurred to me, but do you think the average 30something guy is going to know that?

Versace is quite identifiable - bold prints and the safety pins on dresses were around that time

Vivienne Westwood probably quite identifiable to the uninitiated too?

Vivienne Westwood or Alexander McQueen are the most well
known from that era.

If it's 2000s then I'd go with a Herve Leger dress.

Anyone you saw wearing an expensive bandage style dress would have been by this designer. Instantly recognisable and worn by celebrities etc.

Or Stella Mcartney.

I just need a way for a man who isn't particularly well-informed about women's clothing to be able to recognise that it's a designer garment.

I don't want to criticise your idea, OP, since I'm not a novelist, but in my experience, most men are pretty dim about recognising anything about women's clothing, much less whether it's designer or not.
Could you just have him say it was stunning or looked expensive, or something like that?

Could you get around it by having that women boasting about the cost of her dress in an earlier scene? Or the character recognises it because their sister/ex has or wanted a similar one? I don't think many men would recognise even quite an obvious designer dress without a previous reference point unless it was a literal copy of Liz Hurley's Versace dress or something.

Does he have to know the specific designer or just be able to clock that red soled shoes are some sort of designer branding?

The red soles on loubies would be the most obvious visible tell I reckon. Lots of City women had a pair for special occasions in the 2000s and they would get talked about in the office so men would know they were special. Or a girlfriend would educate them.

I think the red sole Louboutin thing is the most easily recognisable and popular in that era.

Also came here to say Herve Leger bandage dress. It's also a dress you could comfortably be on all fours with, not the case for lots of other dresses from that time.

Does he have to name it? Can you not just use something iconically recognisable that you allude to through his observations and is recognisable by your reader (red soles, safety pins etc)

Otherwise pick a dress worn by a celebrity from the time you want.

I think he wouldn't know. Unless someone - a sister, a previous girlfriend had dragged him out shopping/to a fashion show and forced him to look, going on and on about how wonderful and daring the dress was and how unfair that she couldn't possibly afford it. So he remembers because of the sheer boredom and horror of it all. And then he sees the woman wearing exactly the same thing.

Herve Leger bandage dress definitely.

Pucci print was another that many blokes would know - very distinctive psychedelic colours and swirl patterns.

Loubs for sure. Red soles were synonymous with sexy high earners in the early 2000s.

I came on to say Herve Leger too. The bandage dress was all over the newspapers at the time - he’d have to have been living under a rock not to know it.

Perhaps the buttons or belt could display a designer branding.

Pucci dresses have a fairly iconic print.

Missoni - the chevron style knitting is also very distinctive - used in soft furnishings too - maybe he recognises it from a rich friend's home or a hotel he's stayed in.

Same goes for Burberry check, perhaps a skirt has a kick-pleat where the lining is revealed.

The woman has a matching clutch which carries the designer logo.

That's why ideally there's a label that's so crashing obvious, like the intertwined GG. But I don't know whether a Gucci dress, for example, would have a label anywhere visible to a spectator?

00s was very I'm a cool girl by being mean about other girls. So how about some other drunk girl trying to pull him by negging the dress girl. Dropping in 'oh, it's only a gucci dress', or 'she's left the label in but she'll never be able to take it back to versace now. You know she's maxed out 8 credit cards...'

Although bandage dresses had been around a while they didn't really start being Uber fashionable until the mid naughties ..maybe 2007 so that might be a bit late.

I think Versace prints are really recognisable. So is Chanel tweed style.

Sorry, thanks, everyone. I think some of this would be way over the character's head, though -- he wouldn't know a Herve Leger bandage dress or Missoni.

The woman literally only appears in this sentence, so no set-up possible.

Is there anything I haven't thought of with SHOUT IN YOUR FACE branding? Maybe red soles are easier.

Obviously I don't know how your story unfolds but is there a reason why he has to recognise the designer? Unless the character's into fashion and it's part of the story, wouldn't he be more likely to say, 'She was wearing shoes with a red sole' or 'a dress that looked like a bandage'. Let the reader work it out.

Have her be wearing this dress?

Versace did quite a few body con dresses with branding all over like this.

There’s a pale blue one with Versace repeated all over it too.

I seem to remember SHOUT IN YOUR FACE branding was very much an early noughties thing. Everyone walking around with someone else’s name emblazoned on their chest.

I’m pretty sure Chanel had a lot of dresses with a print of the CC logo or that spelled out COCO or huge gold buttons with the CC logo. Moschino and Versace also were fond of a logo print. Why don’t you search their collections from the appropriate year?