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Moda
Nova is dedicated to the art and beauty of the dress. We
offer our clients one of the country's largest selection of fashion
forward dresses by independent international designers, in sizes 0 to
14. See pictures of dresses from some of our designers to the side. Our
most popular dress styles include:
Cocktail Dresses
As you might
guess, Cocktail Dresses are designed for parties whether they be for an
exclusive cocktail party, a night at the club, a restaurant or company
party. Cocktail dresses are characterized by shorter length, closer fit
and more interesting fashion forward style.
Career Dresses
These dresses
are designed to be both fashionable and suitable for office and
business functions.
Dance Dresses
These are
Tango or Salsa dresses and usually have very fashionable, contemporary
and interesting designs. Most dresses are designed to be
relatively cool even when you spend a lot of time dancing so they use
fabrics that breathe well. They are great for party dresses
and nightclub dresses.
Day Dresses
Some of our
most interesting dresses are designed to be worn all day by people who
want to stand out from the crowd. Our Cop. Copine and Teresa
Santos fashion dresses come to mind. They are casual enough
to wear around on the weekend but edgy enough to keep on for a night on
the town or a party with friends.
Evening Dresses
These are
dresses that you would use at events like attending the ballet, opera
or symphony. They are more formal than cocktail dresses and less formal
than evening gowns. They can be both fashion forward or
conservative in their design.
Evening Gowns
These are the
most formal and elaborate full length gowns used for very special
events such a charity balls, prom and beauty pageants.
Retro Dresses
These dresses
have designs inspired from ealier fashion epoques such as the Fourties,
Fifties and Sixties.
Wedding and Bridesmaid Dresses
Moda Nova has
a great selection of bridesmaid dresses and also some very interesting
non-traditional Wedding dresses. Typically of Tea or floor
length, Bridesmaid dresses are designed to be more feminine and
reserved enough in their design to be appropriate for church or
synagogue. Moda Nova Evening Dresses and Gowns also make
great Mother of the Bride/Groom dresses.
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To
help you understand the design elements that make up a dress we have
compiled this list of the different most popular types of back styles,
sleeve styles, necklines, waist lines, skirt styles, skirt lengths and
dress silhouettes. These design elements can be combined in
an almost infinite different number of ways which help make dresses so
varied, interesting and fun. (The following basic dress design elements
can be combined to produce more than a million different dresses even
before you start talking about fabric, color, pattern and
adornments.) We hope this information will help make it
easier for you to pick the dress that best fits your needs.
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More
and more fashion attention is being paid to having an interesting back
design on dresses.
Bustle
Bustles are not commonly used in contemporary dresses outside of Bridal
Dresses. They hail from the Victorian era when dresses had
large gathering of fabric on the back from the waist down that extended
out from the body.
Butterfly
This detail can be big bow or a gathering of flowers at the base of the
back.
Buttons
Some dresses are attached in the back by a long row of
fabric-covered buttons.
Halter
Halter dresses by definition have an exposed back and no sleeves
because they come up over the front and tie around the neck.
High Back
– Bra Friendly
Many women want a back high enough that they can at least wear a
strapless bra with their dress. We refer to these dresses as
bra friendly.
Keyhole
A cut-out in the shape of a key-hole that exposes the back.
Low Back
It is a low scoop backline and the opposite of bra friendly. The back
is cut-out very low often below the waist line exposing most of the
back.
Ruffles
Many gowns have tiers of ruffles that cascade down from the waistline.
Scoop
A curved backline. If high it can still be bra friendly but
on many dresses it plunges lower.
Square
A half square backline. It is usually high enough to be bra
friendly.
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The
neckline design is very important in the overall impression an tone of
the dress. It is particularly important for dresses for
events like cocktail parties and dinner engagements.
Bateau
This
neckline goes straight across from the top of the shoulders and drops
with a slight curve at the front giving is the silhouette of a boat of
“Bateau” in French.
Bustier
This
is a strapless design that usually has a straight line above the bust
and contains elastic fabric to provide support around bust and waist to
provide support.
Cowl
A
plunging neckline similar to a scoop neckline but with a draped folded
piece of fabric that looks like a cowl.
Decolletage
A deep, plunging neckline.
Halter
This neckline has a scoop or v-neck in front and fabric band wrapping
around the neck. It's is sleeveless and backless. This type of dress
looks good on a wide variety of body types because the tie around the
back is usually adjustable and so can fit different bust sizes.
Illusion
An illusion neckline can be any style that is covered with transparent
netting. It is a great treatment to add to sleeveless dresses
to give some shoulder coverage that many women want for more formal
events.
Jewel
A high, rounded neckline.
Keyhole
A teardrop shaped opening that starts a few inches in from the
shoulders and looks like an old-fashioned keyhole.
Portrait
This style is similar in shape to bateau except that that it an off the
shoulder style that is wider dropping of the edge of each shoulder
exposing most of the shoulder on each side.
Sabrina
The sabrina is similar to the bateau, but it starts two inches in from
each shoulder. As a result, it has a narrower neck opening.
Square
This style forms a half-square.
Spaghetti
Straps
Thin
straps that go over each shoulder. Some
designs include multiple straps in interesting crisscross patterns.
Strapless
Any dress
that does not have straps over the shoulder. Often combined
with a tube top style bodice or bustier design and so it really does
not have a neckline at all.
Sweatheart
A heart shaped neckline in front. Popular on wedding dresses.
Wedding-band
collar
A high circle of fabric that is fitted around the middle of the neck.
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Bishop
A sleeve that is partially full and gathered all the way to the wrist.
Cap
A short very attractive sleeve, a cap sleeve barely covers the top of
the shoulder.
Fitted
- full, three quarter or short length.
These sleeves that are tailored closely to the arm and come in varying
lengths. Three-quarter fitted sleeves end just below the elbow.
Short sleeve are longer than cap sleeve and less common
Juliet
These are
fitted sleeves with a small pouf at the shoulder.
Gibson
This sleeve is puffed at the top and full to the wrist.
Gigot
This sleeve is full at the shoulder with a fitted forearm.
Poet
Very full sleeves with pleats at the shoulder.
Puff
T he puff sleeve features gathered fabric in varying fullness around
the shoulder. This style is often associated with short-sleeve dresses.
Spaghetti
strap
Tiny straps over the shoulder.
Sleeveless
Most of
the evening gowns and cocktail dresses today are sleeveless or have
spaghetti straps. This dresses can be combined with illusion
tops or matching jackets to provide more coverage for more formal
occasions.
Strapless
A strapless bodice with no sleeves. Can be combined with a
matching jacket for formal occasions.
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The
skirt forms the bottom half of the dress below the waist
line. Here are the most common skirt styles used on dresses.
Bouffant
This is the fullest skirt made, with yards and yards of fabric falling
from a gathered waist.
Circular
The skirt forms a circle at the hem line with a smooth non gathered
waistline.
Flared
The skirt gradually widens from waist to floor.
Full
This skirt is gathered at the waist and has more volume than a circular
skirt but less than a bouffant.
Pencil
A type of
sheath skirt the goes straight down from the waist.
Sheath
A straight skirt with no flair that is meant to hug the body.
Slim
A slim skirt that is close to a pencil it is slightly tapered from
waistline to floor.
Multi-tiered
A tiered skirt of different fabrics and/or textures in each horizontal
section.
Trumpet
Fitted to the hips and flaring out below the knees. Classic mermaid
style.
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Asymmetric
hem
Poplular
with ballroom dancers. This skirt has a short length
on one side and long on the other.
Floor-length
A floor-length gown should allow the toes of your shoes to show,
although some brides may prefer a slightly shorter length.
Handkerchief
This is a tea-length skirt designed with panels that end in points. The
effect looks like a series of handkerchiefs sewn together.
Irregular
Hem
Popular
with salsa and cocktail dresses these dresses offer a variety of
irregular hem lengths with some being shorter in the middle and wider
on outside and others having an up and down patter or streamers to
create a fun and irregular hem.
Midi/intermission
This skirt falls between the knee and mid-calf.
Mini
A short
skirt that ends at the mid to upper thigh.
Street
This length falls just below the knee.
Tea-length
A popular length for bridesmaids, tea-length ends at mid-calf.
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The
natural waist is defined as the smallest part of your torso.
The waistline is the separation of the bodice from the skirt in the
dress. It can be located at, above or below your natural
waist.
A-Line
An A-line waistline is fitted at the bodice and then flares out to the
skirt. This is one the waistlines that looks good on most body types.
Basque
A fitted, V-shaped waist line that starts 2 to 3 inches below your
natural waist.
Drop waist
This waist line is close to your hips and usually 3 to 5 inches below
natural waist. A drop waist can help elongate the torso and give an
illusion of extra height.
Empire
This waistline starts just below the bust line. An empire waist is a
style that looks good on a variety of body types but you need to be
careful not to have the waist line so high that you don’t
have adequate bust coverage.
Raised
This waist line sits about 1 inch above the natural waist.
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The
silhouette gives the overall look of a gown. The silhouette is the
outline of the gown and includes the type of skirt, bodice and
waistline. Here are a few of the better known gown silhouettes.
A-Line
This style has vertical seams flowing from the shoulders down to a
flared skirt. The waistline is not as defined as other styles. Because
of its versatility, this style fits many body types.
Ball gown
The ball gown has a fitted bodice and waistline with a full skirt.
Empire
A high waistline starting just under the bust that falls to a slimmer
skirt-width.
Sheath
This is a body hugging style with a slim skirt. It is very
contemporary but not an easy fit for all body types.
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Evening
Dress by Pepa Pombo of Bogota
Cocktail
Dress by Pepa Pombo of Bogota
