‘You Can’t Just Slap Some Fabric Together And Call It A Dress’: 40 Dresses Looked So Bad, They Deserved To Shamed

It’s often said fashion is all about taking risks, but of late, designers seem to be on the wrong side, debuting outrageously bad dresses without thinking twice. Clearly, they have been giving the Facebook group “You Can’t Just Slap Some Fabric Together And Call It A Dress” content, and you can’t get enough of it. The group has been around since April 2020, and it had previously been named “You Can’t Slap On A White Skirt And Call It A Wedding Dress. 

The aim of the group, which has already earned an impressive 61K members, is simple, as its rules state it’s for dress shaming only and that members remain actively sharing all of the fashion atrocities they come across from all over the internet. According to the group’s creator, Mary Waldron, the name was inspired by a comment she came across on a post in the group titled “That’s it, I’m wedding dress shaming.” Below, we’ve collated some bad dress designs worth shaming. Feel free to judge them too. 

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Designs flops are natural and so being careful is KEY. And as Famous Fashion Designer Vera Wang once said, designs should be aimed to highlight the wearer rather than distract from everything else around them. The designer icon told townandcountrymag: “I want people to see the dress, but focus on the woman.” Perhaps this strategy is why she’s been so successful. However, its creator, Mary, claimed the dress-shaming group has been popular since the beginning.

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Mary previously told Boredpanda: “I noticed the group gaining more popularity about 6-7 months after I created it, and it was honestly out of nowhere.” “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.” She added that shaming groups in general bring people together and resonate with them about how bad things are out there. 

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Mary 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.” Of what makes a dress terrible, the creator alleged that the dresses she tends to gawk at are the ones that look like they could fall off, tear, or just completely malfunction at any given moment. But outside the group, she tries to keep an open mind as a person’s taste is as unique as their own. 

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Also, Renaud Petit thinks all of the outfits featured lately on the runways look ridiculous. In a piece for Medium, he broke down why shows are now filled with unwearable garments and explained that those bizarre ensembles seen on models aren’t ever going to end up in department stores or boutiques, but they remain a great way for designers to express their creativity. Petit insisted that designers are also artists, and they need to create their sculptures and artworks on canvas. 

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Petit had written: “As you can easily imagine, a basic T-shirt or a pair of trousers is 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]. He further explained that the looks featured in fashion shows are more of a mood board for what the actual collection will look like than they are pieces that should be sold on shelves. 

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Petit wrote of looks in fashion shows: “This is why it is called a show and why it is not simply a range of products displayed on still mannequins. 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 the same with a Fashion show.” 

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In his piece, Petit insisted runway pieces are like muses, and they make for a base on which the actual collection will rely. He continues: “Presenting such exaggerated pieces also makes it easier for us to understand what the real inspirations behind the collection were. They sometimes are used to subtly introduce new hints on what the designer wants to do for future seasons. After the show, if the public liked it, an idea may survive.” 

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In his article for The Washington Post, Robin Givhan explained that there’s a good reason for fashion to be so weird. He questioned if weird fashion was clothing struggling to be taken seriously as art and added: “Perhaps if the definition of art is an expression of creativity that aims to provoke an emotional response.” Robin continued: “But fashion is not the same as a painting or sculpture or ballet.” Fashion is a commodity; it has been worn; it has to live outside of a gallery or theater.” 

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Robin continued: “It [fashion] 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. 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.”

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Of the photos in our compilation, Robin alleged they certainly got a reaction of out him and stated that: “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 happens to be tasteless.” You’ll agree that if there’s anything from the countless episodes of Project Runway, it’s that fashion is about exploring. Sometimes designs fail and that’s arguably better than being bland and or perhaps quickly forgotten.