Hervé Léger: The bandage dress that gives first aid to the stars

As Hervé Léger's clingy Eighties classic returns to the catwalk, Lesley Thomas asks whether a real woman can pull it off

Ah, the late Eighties. I do miss them. David Bowie was at the peak of his Wild is the Wind phase and that girl from Swing Out Sister with the impeccable red lips was, well, swinging.

	Real women making a statement? Victoria Beckham and The Daily Telegraph's Lesley Thomas try bandage dresses for size

Women were striding around boardrooms having the time of their lives. So when the opportunity arose to test-drive an iconic dress of the 1980s, I leapt at the chance.

Hervé Léger's "bandage dress" was as much a part of the era as Rick Astley or Sad e. Unveiled in 1989, the sheath-like frock which resembled a series of elasticated bandages wrapped around the torso, earned its creator the moniker "King of Cling".

Well before the Galaxy and the Moon dresses, celebrities and supermodels all went crazy for the Bandage Dress.

Earlier this week in New York, the slinky dress was relaunched by the label's new designer, Max Azria, to wild acclaim. The style has a cult following, with vintage versions changing hands for hundreds of pounds.

Starlets and Wags are already placing orders for the latest incarnations while high-street chains are no doubt speed-sketching cut-price versions.

But can a designer bandage work on a real woman? It was only as I unravelled the slinky coral dress that I remembered there had been quite a few changes in my life since the 1980s.

In those days I was happy to wear Lycra dresses and short skirts. I even wore them with Doc Martens. But a couple of decades and pregnancies later, things that were concave are now convex. I was suddenly nervous about fashion time travel.

As I pulled the dress on, I felt immediately reassured by its sturdy engineering. It takes three days to make one of these £1,345 dresses and the craftsmanship is obvious. It isn't uncomfortably tight but it doesn't yield.

You have to stand tall and clench your abs. So, as I zip the dress up, it feels a bit like a superhero suit. Bits of me are pulled in, others are pushed up.

I perform a few household tasks - loading the dishwasher, feeding the cat and, amazingly, everything remains in place. My husband seems impressed at the outfit I have chosen to watch David Attenborough - although when I ask whether a coral skin-tight dress could be anything other than tarty he says, enigmatically: "Well it depends where you are wearing it."

The truth is, I didn't dare go out in it. I imagine that if you wore this dress without a wedding ring at certain swanky hotel bars in London, you might risk being thrown out.

Most women's figures would be favourably assisted with a bandage dress - but it takes a certain courage to step out the door in this eyeball magnet.

Celebrities, of course, have no such concerns. Although this was the first time in years that Hervé Léger has shown on the catwalk, the dress never went away.

In times of need, celebrities have tried to heal their wounds with shiny elastane and Lycra dressing. Lindsay Lohan slides into brightly coloured Hervé Léger bandages to prove she's bounced back from rehab, and when Victoria Beckham needs yet more attention, out comes the minuscule Léger dress.

Paula Yates wore it for Vogue after her separation from Bob Geldof.

But it was Elizabeth Hurley - who else? - who showed how best to use the career-healing bandages in 1995.

For a film première soon after her then boyfriend Hugh Grant's "moment of madness" with Hollywood hooker Divine Brown, Hurley chose an Hervé Léger dress.

It was bright white - hinting at both a long-term future together and Hurley's innocent victim status.

It was the perfect antidote to "that dress" from Versace, which Hurley wore when she first bounced into public view, but the Léger also displayed her spectacular physique.

She accessorised with modest diamonds and a wounded expression. It was a masterstroke - and arguably the image that enabled her to retain her contract as the face of Estée Lauder for a further six years.

Years later, another of Grant's girlfriends did the same, but Jemima Khan didn't quite pull it off. As rumours appeared that their relationship was in trouble, Khan walked up a red carpet with Grant in an uncharacteristically raunchy get up.

A black bandage dress, studded cuff and vertiginous patent Louboutins made the ethereal Khan look like a very uncomfortable dominatrix. She had the figure to pull the look off, but somehow, not the spirit.

Days later, the couple announced their separation.

It is a statement dress all right - but be certain it's a statement you want to make before you go out in one.