High-waisted, diaphanous frocks reclaimed from the sex industry in the ’90s as an ambivalent statement by young women about fashion and gender roles.

The origination of the baby-doll look became the subject of an unseemly public dispute between Kat Bjelland of Babes in Toyland and Hole’s Courtney Love, who called her own slut/infant fashion combo “kinderwhore.”

As with so many other examples of thrift-store chic, baby-doll dresses were quickly co-opted by the fashion business, surfacing in Anna Sui and Isaac Mizrahi collections shown in 1993.

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