A dress is a garment traditionally worn by women or girls consisting of a skirt with an attached bodice. It consists of a top piece that covers the torso and hangs down over the legs. A dress can be any one-piece garment containing a skirt of any length, and can be formal or casual.
Illustration of 18th century French women
Empire dress, 1800–1805, cotton and linen, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
French afternoon dress, circa 1903, cotton and silk, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City)
Dresses in the 1930s.
Frock has been used since Middle English as the name for an article of clothing, typically coat-like, for men and women.
Charles Blair in a frock (c. 1761–66), a coat with a flat collar.
Johann Reinhold Forster with his son Georg Forster (1780) in frocks in Tahiti, by John Francis Rigaud (1742–1810).
Man's wool and silk twill frock coat, France (1816–20), illustrating the shift from previous 18th century connotations of a frock to early 19th century definition of a (dark) frock coat. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The "frock" as a dress, worn by a woman.