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!

Somewhere in the past, your hero wil have bought his gf/sister etc a pair of red soles loboutins...

Just shorthand, really, and for slight comic effect -- he's telling this to someone he's just met, and she's amused by this really not being his scene at all.

Thanks, all -- food for thought!

How intriguing. Are you Jilly Cooper OP??

No! Literary fiction, deeply obscure!

(And have never actually read a single word of JC...)

Alexander McQueen skull buttons?

Are you overthinking it? Could you have the beaded fringes of her transparent Versace gown trailing awkwardly on the carpet as she grovelled? (I like the sound of your scene, btw; appropriate detail!)

https://www.instagram.com/tabvintage/p/C4BnQiNy7kh/?img_index=1

Thanks, everyone -- think I'm going with @VulvaArmy's suggestion. Though I now want someone (a man) to be wearing a garment with Alexander McQueen skull buttons for one of the London party scenes...

I thought exactly the same. That era was all about the herve leger bandage dress.

First thing I thought of was Louboutins, asked my 30-something not particularly fashion savvy husband what he would think if he saw a woman wearing a pair of heels with red soles and he didn't get it at all 😑

I can remember lots of clothes that had D&G printed all over them ... jumpers and dresses ... perhaps that could be an idea?

This is a good question.
Alternatively, if it's important he knows the designer for some plot reason, could he know because she or another character mentions it? For instance, another character makes a disparaging comment about how the woman can afford a Hervé Leger dress ?

I feel really old.

I think of Azzedine Alaia as the origin of the bandage/bodycon dress, and would have put it at early 90s

But on your original question - could she be carrying a Chanel chain strap handbag? They're iconic, very expensive and crucially vv recognisable

@TheseWomen but people who don't know about clothes wouldn't notice or appreciate a designer label on a dress. It's not a good idea. Can't the third party narrator say "her Gucci dress" or something if if needs to be identified as designer? Why does he need to know it's a specific designer? Genuinely men who don't know anything about fashion are not going to pick up on a label in a womens dress, much less a specific type of design that's a trademark of a particular designer.

Having said all that The most obvious thing I can think of is Burberry check...

in my experience, most men are pretty dim about recognising anything about women's clothing

Not always true. Tom Wambsgans and the ‘ludicrously capacious bag’

I think a man is more likely to recognise a very expensive dress than anything by a specific designer. I have never heard of man describe a woman by the name of the designer clothes she wears.

What about Issey Miyake ? The pleated outfits are very distinctive, no need for a label.

Glad I contributed, OP :)

The Herve Leger bandage dress was 1990s not 2000s BUT it might be better set in the late 90s if it’s very splash-the-cash as things were definitely changing by the early 2000s before the big financial crash …

I think your best bet is to make the dress just like one that a celebrity wore that he’d seen on the TV/in the newspaper - obviously expensive! there isn’t a designer brand of that era that the average man of the era would recognise but he’d recognise jLo’s V to the waist Versace dress!
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/4z6oHTrvGtXBdwM2mH59fc-1600-80.jpeg.webp

There is a vintage Gucci here which does show that there is a label in it however he would not see the label unless the dress was seriously riding up or in a heap on the floor
https://relliklondon.co.uk/product/gucci-2000s-one-shoulder-slinky-wine-mini-dress/
another here https://www.1stdibs.com/fashion/clothing/day-dresses/2000s-gucci-black-white-rayon-dress/id-v_19415852/

does it have to be a named designer? Could he not say/think something like “the dress was obviously not from Dorothy Perkins – it was an expensive one”