Floral dresses: wear ’em like you don’t really mean ’em | Jess Cartner-Morley

Whatever blooms you are sporting, style them with a dash of irony to make it clear you’re not stuck in a period-drama time warp

Some types of fashion work best with a dash of irony. Case in point: the floral dress. I love a floral dress in the summer. Who doesn’t? It’s a classic. Look around any office, any train, any park and you will see women covered in daisies and roses, in blowsy painterly blooms or carpeted with ditsy sprigs.

But the best accessory to a floral dress is not a flatform sandal or hoop earrings. It is a tongue worn in one’s cheek. A dash of irony makes the difference between looking like a Sally Rooney character headed to a steamy assignation in the park, and, in the same dress, looking like the Countess of Wessex about to open a garden centre.