With details like puff sleeves or a rustic print, the whimsy dress may be fun and folkloric – but it can also mean business
Listen, can we have a quick chat? Nothing to worry about. But we need to talk about your summer dress. You know the one. The long, loose one perhaps with smocking or shirring on the bodice. Oh, and the puffy sleeves – it’s definitely got puffy sleeves. Your upper arms and thighs are covered – that was partly why you bought it – but there might be a bare shoulder or a milkmaid-ish square neckline that shows a bit of décolletage. Was there a cut-out bit at the back? A bit of bare skin, but classy, you know. I think it’s gingham. But it could be floral or bright pink, or white linen.
You know the dress I mean, because even in the unlikely event it’s not in your wardrobe – yet – it is everywhere this summer. It is the dress your best friend is wearing in her holiday photos on Instagram and the dress your kid’s teacher wore for the summer fair. It is what to wear to your birthday lunch, whether you are turning 21 or 50.
How did the puff-sleeved, whimsical dress become a go-to look for the woman speed-walking to catch the train to work while checking her phone? How did we get to a point where even Nadine Dorries is moving on from vacuum-packed-tailoring to embrace the pastoral vibes of a cornflower-blue, spriggy maxi dress with tulip-flounced sleeves, as she did recently?
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