The Clothing and Style of the Argentine Tango

TL;DR; The Argentine Tango, which began as a 19th-century working-class dance in South America, evolved into a global symbol of sophistication. Its fashion was just as influential as the dance itself, helping to shift women's clothing from restrictive Victorian styles to shorter, more vibrant, and sensual dresses that allowed for movement. Today, the style remains true to its roots, with men typically wearing black and white to complement the woman's often red, elegant, and flowing dress.

The Clothing and Style of the Argentine Tango

Without question, one of the most iconic, sleek, sexy, sophisticated, and stylish dances ever created is the Argentine Tango.

The Tango isn’t just a dance, it’s an artform and the ultimate piece of performance art. It’s the dance that everybody dreams of mastering and is a dance with strong links to the fashion world.

Dancing the tango isn’t just about perfecting the slow, sexy, and methodical movements in synergy with your partner, it’s about dressing to the nines, looking a million bucks, and feeling sexier, more fashionable, and more confident than ever. Argentine Tango fashion is unlike that associated with any other form of dance, yet over the years it has changed and evolved, while still staying true to its cultural roots and origins.

Here’s a quick overview of the clothing and style of the Argentine Tango over the years.

A Brief History of the Tango

You’ve heard the saying ‘it takes two to Tango’ and you may have heard that the Tango is one of the hardest dances to master.

Today, the Tango is associated with luxury, style, and decadence. We think of glamorous ballrooms, crystal chandeliers, cocktails and appetizers, pristine tuxedos, and glamorous ballroom gowns and cocktail dresses. Originally, however, the Tango was a 19^th century dance for the underprivileged growing up in rundown, working class districts in parts of South America, particularly Uruguay and Argentina.

The dance, which was a hybrid of local, African and European dance styles, popularized by immigrants, became popular in port towns and cities around the 1880s. Performed in pairs, it characterized by its slow and methodical pivots and movements, and was often performed in local bars and halls after a long week at work. It was primarily a way for locals to socialize, relax, and have fun.

It became almost synonymous with the working classes, with the upper classes turning their noses up at it and viewing it as crude, vulgar, and cheap. In particular, they would criticize the way the women dressed, seeing their dresses as too revealing and provocative.

However, in the 1900s, the dance became popular in Europe, especially France, with many Europeans finding the dresses the women wore to be very stylish and sexy. The Tango continued to grow in popularity, and it wasn’t long before it was a global phenomenon, even sparking its own unique style of fashion.

The Clothing and Style of the Argentine Tango

As the world had now fallen in love with this stunning new dance, suddenly everybody wanted to be a Tango dancer. As global fashion centers such as Paris, London, Milan, and New York had embraced this new dance, it quickly became as much about the fashion as it was about the dancing.

In London especially, Victorian clothing was slowly being phased out. As the world continued to evolve, fashion styles changed and the restrictive, conservative, old-fashioned Victorian styles were being replaced by something sexier, more practical, and more upmarket.

By 1913, Tango dresses, also known as ‘Tango Visite’ were produced on a large-scale and marketed specifically for women who wanted to dance the Tango. These dresses were thin and comfortable to promote movement, and were made from thin satin, which became known as ‘Satin Tango’. They were also brightly colored – usually yellow and/or orange, extravagant, and shorter, hanging roughly at the mid-calf range. The bright colors and shorter lengths were in stark contrast to the Victorian era dresses, which were generally neutral in color, made from thicker materials, much longer in length, and designed to cover nearly all of the body.

Suddenly, as these new dresses became popular in Europe, women became empowered. Rather than blending in, they were the stars of the show, and all eyes were on them and their extravagant costumes. Many believe that it was Tango fashion which helped shape women’s fashion as we know it today.

As the years passed by, Tango dresses were modified and tweaked slightly. They featured symmetrical hemlines, as well as slits, and openings to allow for more movement while dancing. Of course, as the fashion world evolved, so too did the manufacturing processes. Tango Satin was replaced by stretchy synthetic materials such as Polyester and Lycra.

The Fundamentals of Modern Tango Fashion

While Tango fashion is much more diverse nowadays, it still largely remains true to its origins.

In the very early days of the dance, men would wear tight dark colored chaps on their legs, and spurs on their boots, with a typical white shirt. The black and white combo is very much still synonymous with male Tango dancers, though silk is often the material of choice when it comes to shirts.

Some men will wear loose-fitting tuxedos, whereas others will stick with straight-leg tango pants, Tango shoes, a loose silk shirt, and accessories such as vests, braces, and hats.

As the Tango is a paired dance, it’s important that each person’s outfit compliments their partner’s. One of the main benefits of men largely dressing in black and/or white is the fact that both of these colors go with a variety of others, so clashing outfits and styles is less of an issue.

Traditionally, women tend to wear red which is another reason why the dance is considered to be so sultry and sexy. With the men largely dressing in black or white, it works incredibly well with the vibrant bright red colors of the women’s dress.

Tango dresses now come in a huge variety of lengths, materials, and designs, and can be accessorized at the wearer’s will. Flowers, jewelry, stockings, feathers, fascinators, and custom-made Tango shoes can be worn with great effect.