Short answers, pulled from the story.
A dress, also known as a frock or a gown, is a one-piece outer garment worn on the torso and hanging down over the legs. It often consists of a bodice attached to a skirt, and it varies by sleeve length, neckline, skirt length, and hemline.
Historically, foundation and structural garments were used to achieve a desired silhouette under dresses. These included corsets, partlets, petticoats, panniers, and bustles.
From the 1540s, the bodices of European dresses were stiffened to flatten the chest, and skirts were shaped with a Spanish farthingale, creating a silhouette of two triangles. From the 1570s dress became more decorated and rigid, and the wider wheel farthingale replaced the conical Spanish farthingale.
Paper sewing patterns for women to sew their own dresses became readily available in the 1860s, when the Butterick Publishing Company began to promote them. These patterns were graded by size, which was a new innovation.
The New Look was promoted by Christian Dior after World War II. It was very influential on fashion and the look of women's dresses for about a decade.
A bodycon dress is a tight, figure-hugging dress often made from stretchy material. Its name derives from body confidence, or originally body-conscious, which was transformed into Japanese in the 1980s as bodikon.