A Couple Of Good Dresses.

This thing that used to be easy is no longer easy.

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I used to wear dresses a lot. I had so many! Most of them were of the cheap-and-cheerful variety and all are long gone. Now I only have a few that are special (and rarely worn.) I still like them, but with the recent trend of ruffles and prairie crap I basically gave up looking for more.

And then I posted about my suitcase packing panic and my brain broke because I decided I need a casual, easy dress for this trip and I COULD NOT STOP until I found it. There was a bit of a obsessive online shopping spiral, which is a thing I do. In the end, I only ordered two dresses, both from Everlane: the The Rib-Knit Cap-Sleeve Midi Dress and the The Muscle Tee Midi Dress, both in black because I’m delightfully boring now.

I tried the muscle tee dress on first and automatically dismissed it because it dared to touch my stomach, the part of my body I dislike the most. Then I tried on the rib-knit dress and was like, huh, this is really nice but too long. Then I tried on both again, this time with shoes and accessories, and sent the photos to my friends because that’s how I do. First, the rib knit dress:

It skims nicely. A detail shot because it’s hard to photograph black clothing:

Y’all, this is such a nice dress. The material hangs beautifully and had a bit of weight to it but it doesn’t feel hot. It looks expensive! The color is not a true black, it leans a bit more charcoal and the rib knit gives it texture. My main issue is that midi length is so weird on me and I feel dowdy and stumpy, rather than elegant. I can’t wear heels right now (maybe not ever) and don’t have time to get it hemmed, so I was really on the fence. Now, the muscle sleeve dress:

This one is more body-con but has the edgy sleeves to give it interest and even though it’s midi length on me, the side slits break up the line. Overall, it’s a damn cool dress. It’s made of a nice medium-weight cotton so it’s more casual, but could easily be dressed up. My main negative, as I mentioned, was that it hugged my stomach a little bit and that is such a thing for me. But, it’s definitely the kind of dress I was looking for - easy and casual, perfect with Birks and good with sneakers:

I was pretty much a no on this one despite all it’s positives. But, here’s the punchline: I sent all these photos to three friends and all three of them, without fail, loved that muscle tee dress on me. I explained the stomach problem in detail and they all told me to kindly shut the fuck up and get over it. Per my friend Marianne: “You are a human with a stomach! You look great.” And the thing is, this dress is so exactly what I was looking for and I was quick to dismiss immediately it because of my own stupid hangup. Anyway, I kept it and returned the rib-knit dress without another thought. Sometimes a little peer pressure is all you need to get over yourself a little bit.

I am still working on the super tiresome aspect of some piece of clothing daring to cling to my midsection, but as I just said last week, I am really trying to get past the idea that everything I wear is somehow supposed to magically make me look smaller or more pleasingly shaped¹. My body is fine the way it is and this is a great dress.

1. Is this a GenX thing? I feel like the younger folks today are more into dressing as they please and care less about “flattering.”