Mermaid dresses have become au courant. Beyonce sports one here that’s truly hideous:
The dress’s awfulness goes beyond the mere fact that Beyonce can barely walk in it. It’s not just the tight bottom; the top part of the garment is painfully restrictive as well, the decolletage conjuring up the pressed-duck bodices of the Tudor era:
And, in another Tudoresque connection, Beyonce’s garb makes me think of these guys, who lack the decolletage but have some of the trimmings:
I well remember the mermaid dresses from 50s. My mother had one that served me as a dress-up costume when it finally got worn and tired. I thought—wrongly, as it turned out—that when I grew up I’d have many opportunities to wear beautiful gowns and go to balls, too. But nada.
Here’s an example of the 50s version of the mermaid. It was indeed much lovelier than today’s more crass evocations of the genre, but probably just as much of an impediment to walking:
[NOTE: While doing research for this post, I came across something I'd never heard of before called the sumptuary laws. Talk about the nanny state! Maybe progress isn't illusory after all.]
[ADDENDUM: Oh, and what's with that lacy stuff on the top of Beyonce's breasts? Is it fabric, or some sort of tattoo?]
Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely 
May 4th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
A cousin was married in a mermaid dress, with a fingertip veil. I wasn’t there, but my sister said she looked like a Q-tip.
May 4th, 2011 at 2:13 pm
i watched the unedited clips..
nice..
maybe i will get back into doing journalism again
i certainly have no future..
May 4th, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Reminds me of my favorite martian, Lisa Marie, in Mars Attacks!
May 4th, 2011 at 3:56 pm
Thanks for the still from Anne of the Thousand Days! I liked that movie… the pic brings back memories.
May 4th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
It will be fun to see Michelle Obama wearing a dress like this at an official function, maybe a medal of honor ceremony.
Some of you nasty snarky people (like me) might enjoy http://www.michellesmirror.com/
I’m not feeling charitable today after reading many blogs and comments that are trying to dissect the events related to the killing of bin laden. Some think that Pakistan held bin laden prisoner and turned him over to the U.S. for cash. That would explain the crappy-looking dump bin laden lived in.
Forgive me if you already discussed this on a previous thread.
May 4th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
You should have posted the not so glamorous back view of Beyonce being half-held, half-carried up the stairs because she could not walk up them herself in this “dress.”
I also saw a thumbnail of the dress and the dark lace on her bustline made it look as if half her nips were showing.
She has no taste. Look at the crotch shorts she wore to dance in Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” version of Beyonce’s song about getting rubbed against by strangers in a dance club. Look up the meaning of “getting bodied.”
May 4th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
This horrible dress looks like it comes, yet again, from Beyonce’s mom’s fashion label, House of Dereon. Another spectacular flop.
May 4th, 2011 at 4:56 pm
Well, that was my fashion lesson for this year.
May 4th, 2011 at 6:49 pm
That third photo makes me want gin. For some reason.
May 4th, 2011 at 8:46 pm
[...] Were you aware there is a genre of dress called the mermaid dress? This one escaped me. But Neoneocon has the photo essay. I don’t think I’ll be buying one. How about [...]
May 5th, 2011 at 8:23 am
The guy Beyonce is with doesn’t look too enthusiastic about being with her. His expression is right out of an old tv sitcom. Perhaps he’s thinking about the dress also.
May 5th, 2011 at 11:18 am
This could have been saved. Make it fit and not flatten her breasts – maybe not showing the bra, hmm?
Get rid of the bit above the neck, and make the dress scoop necked instead of that stupid gap.
Some sleeves would be nice, as well.
Make it a lot looser around the hips and get rid of the fishtail.
It’d still be trashy, but I wouldn’t feel constricted and short of breath just looking at her.
May 5th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
Sumptuary laws indeed are just an old definition of a new Global Warming and Leftist regime state.
Only the “Leftist intellectual elites” deserve luxuries after all. Everybody else must suffer to “heal the Planet”.
May 6th, 2011 at 5:31 am
Half exposed nips were the first thing that popped into my mind.
May 6th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
I love that black and white shot, one of Irving Penn’s greatest. His pictures you don think of all the impractical elements of the dress!
May 20th, 2011 at 4:39 pm
[...] isn’t exactly a classic “mermaid-style” dress, which hugs the hips and thighs, and then flares out at the bottom for a tail-like effect, but it’s coloring, fabric, and Blake’s hair are romantic nods to the mermaid aesthetic [...]
January 23rd, 2012 at 4:34 pm
the problem with the dress is that it is too tight, and the bottom of the dress is very unflattering. Too much black and gold contrast makes it look overwhelmingly cheap. i want to make a dress like this, tone down the color contrast, make it a little loose and get rid of the bottom. I like the neck and open of above chest.