Back closure

They continue, however, to be widely used in underwear (such as brassieres and garter belts), formal wear (such as evening gowns and wedding dresses) and specialized clothing (such as smocks).

Back closures throughout the past several centuries have been common on clothes designed for females of all ages, including dresses, skirts, jumpers, blouses, sweaters, and sometimes slacks, and on certain unisex clothes such as infant and toddler wear, costumes, wetsuits and special-needs outfits.

Though usually a feature of a garment's designs for stylistic reasons, some back closures can be difficult or sometimes impossible for the wearer to operate oneself, a factor that has favored their phase-out.

[1] Back closures on female clothing remained common in Western fashion even through the Industrial Revolution, when servants became rare except to royalty and the wealthiest of women.

It is for this reason that back closures have more often been associated with clothes intended for smarter occasions, such as formal events, religious services, or professional wear.

Though at first opposed on women's clothes due to the suggestiveness of speedy undressing, it ultimately became popular on women's clothing, particularly dresses, in the late 1930s, for their convenience over hook and eye fasteners, buttons and snap fasteners, hence the now obsolete term zipperback dress.

Some such garments may sport decorative buttons, lacing or mock closures at the front, but actually open at the back.

They are likely to remain long after other garments with back closures lose popularity because they allow for a woman to easily dress herself.

For occasions when it is not, then the wearer can simply rotate the skirt until the zipper becomes visible at the front, and turn it back when the job is done.

Fitted skirts may have their back zippers accompanied by a single waist button, a hook-and-eye closure, or nothing else.

Prior to the existence of the zipper, buttons were the most common back closure found on women's clothes.

This, combined with their T-shirt-like comfort and low cost, made them a popular choice for working women for a few decades.

These posed the problem that the wearer would be required to reach in back to unzip the garment simply for bathroom usage.