What does it mean when someone says, "She didn't wear that dress; the dress wore her"?

here, dear

It means the dress overwhelmed the person who wore it. All you noticed was the dress and not the person.

It could be anything...it was too loud, too big, inappropriate, not meant for the occasion worn, too short, too long, just too much.

Look up:

Lady Gaga Inauguration 2021.

It means the dress overpowered the woman.

An outfit should augment one’s beauty, not create something else unwieldy and unflattering.

A lot has to do with your body language. Do you move boldly and confidently in the garment, or are you overwhelmed because you don't have what it takes to pull off the fashion.

Oh. my. God. Must we spell out something so obvious?

Think of Lagerfeld wearing skinny jeans and ruffle collared shirts.

Think of James Cordon wearing sharkskin suits.

Think of Pat Boone wearing motorcycle drag.

The person who is wearing something a little more loud or bold than usual looks visibly uncomfortable or not confident.

It can also mean the clothes are overpowering and that you can't really pay attention to the person because you're distracted by the clothes. Ideally, a beautiful or elegant outfit makes a person look better but doesn't take your attention away from the person.

Nicole Kidman became a style icon when she wore this dress. The dress is really loud and ostentatious, albeit sleek, and a lot of people would look ridiculous in it, or at least the dress would take all your attention away from the person. But Nicole is not "being worn by the dress," she is wearing it boldly.

Meanwhile...

It essentially means that whatever the look wasn't a natural fit. There are people who can wear outlandish outfits, and it totally works.

There isn't a clear cut definition, it's more of a you know it when you see it sort of thing.

Patti LaBelle could wear completely outlandish everything, and for whatever reason it worked for and on her. Most people would look ridiculous and trying to hard, but that look fit her like a glove.

It's kind of an interesting subject. It is sort of the X factor in terms of some people are just able to get away with things that others are not. there are no real rules within this, but at the same time there really are unspoken rules.

Yes, I'm sort of drunk, so hopefully that made sense.

The dress wore her.

The dress beat the shit out of her and then wore her skin as a trophy.

The dress wore her.

She wore the dress.

I’d love to have my clothes wear me just once. It sounds interesting

Nicole wore the fuck outta this red dress.

Gal Gadot got worn.

Angelina wore this perfectly.

Chrissy Metz always WEARS THE DRESS. I mean props of the thing up!

A casual example

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Prince is another example of someone who wore completely outlandish outfits that on anyone else they would almost certainly look ridiculous, but he owned those looks. They were a part of him. He wore them, not the other way around

TLo has a regular feature called In or Out in which you can regularly see stars whose reach exceeded their capability.

Here’s one.

The scale tipped and Bjork wore this dress (killing the dress).

One of my favorites in how you wear clothes and not have them wear you.

The dress wore her.

The dress wore her - Classic Hollywood Edition

She wore the hat

The dress wore her - Classic Hollywood Edition, Pt 2

She wore the dress.

Yeah, "the dress/suit wore you" is not about any specific style, color, cut, etc., it's just a way to say the outfit was too conspicuous for the person who wore it and (maybe) the occasion. That's largely a matter of the wearer's personality; someone who's bold and unusually creative or dramatic even for the arts is much less likely to "get worn" than someone who's on the quiet, mousy side or known for a regular guy/gal persona.

The guy at R20 is old enough to have a kid at Colombia?

She’s trying to serve it up but she’s never going to be sophisticated enough to pull this off, not least because she’s only 21 here.

Fantastic look though.

There probably never has, and never will be, a better example.

^^^^ has “been”

I feel bad for her, she’s one of the few who paid attention to the theme.

You notice the outfit itself instead of how great the person looks in it. Basically, they look like a fashion victim.

FYI, pretty sure Liza Minelli invented this phrase...

What’s old is new again!

OP, the rule of thumb I was taught as a young 'un is:

You want people to say "You look gorgeous!"

You do NOT want people to say, "What a gorgeous dress!"

That is the difference you seek.