These 9 Dresses Are All We Want To Wear From Now Until August
And you might just recognize every single one.
Image: Pretty Woman | Touchstone Pictures
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by The Candidly Team
Here’s a little trade secret about writing about dresses.
It’s hard.
Not writing-about-the-ins-and-outs-of-weight-loss hard or decoding-childhood-attachment-patterns hard. But hard.
And the reason is because shopping for dresses is hard. Finding garments of clothing we love off our bodies that will go on to look good on BOTH the upper and lower halves of our bodies is almost laughable. Even when we watch a parade of red carpet dresses where the fittest, most famous of people have access to the most famous of designers, we still don’t really like 87% of what we see.
And our point is…?
Well, we tried a new system for finding dresses we love wherein we let the inspiration lead us to the dress. We found nine iconic film/tv dresses (not ballgowns ascending down staircases, but real-life, wearable dresses) that sparked a feeling in us - a feeling like yes, we could do that. Without a stylist, without a costume designer, without a personal trainer, we could wear the hell out of that dress.
And here the nine soulmate dresses we’ll be styling for the rest of the year and beyond.
Image: Pretty Woman | Touchstone Pictures
1. The Ultimate Little Black Cocktail Dress
Aidan Mattox Lace Off the Shoulder Crepe Dress
The only thing getting in our way of wearing Julia’s exact slinky lace dress is that most slinky lace dresses are highly unflattering. In fact, adding stretch to lace just seems to accentuate all our lumps and bumps and belly pooches. But not this dress. It has the gorgeous rough-edge lace at the stunning neckline but the rest of the dress is a stretchy crepe that smooths and holds us in. There’s even subtle ruching and drape right where we need it on the lower waist. It truly is the dream little black dress.
Price: $245
Image: Match Point | BBC Films
2. The Curve-Complementing Shirt Dress
Quince 100% European Linen Button Front Dress
Wrap dresses are so, so good on curves - so easy - so grabbable. They skim over butts and bellies but also create curves where we lack them. This dress gives us an instant hourglass without being the slightest bit constricting. We can wear it to every single thing any day of the year. We wear it in black with tights in the winter and in white with sandals in the summer. It comes in so many colors and stripes and ginghams, many of which we either bought or have in our cart because the fit is that effortless. The buttons also remind us of another dress that’s been on our sartorial bucket list:
And the price is so good, we can afford to own it in multiples.
Price: $60
Image: Nobody Wants This | Netflix
3. The Date Dress
Aritzia Babaton
FigureKnit™ Eyecatcher Dress
How often do we scan our closet looking for that perfect, all-occasion, gorgeous-fitting dress that simply doesn’t exist because we do not own it. We strongly feel this dress takes care of that. We’ve been taught to fear strapless things. But this is one of those myths we’ve made it our mission to dispel. If you have thick arms or broad shoulders, a strapless dress can be far more flattering than a sleeveless dress which can dig in and be widening. And we shouldn’t deny ourselves such incredible, curve-complementing fits (like this dress) just because it’s strapless. It comes in so many pretty colors. Black is a no brainer, but we can’t stop thinking about sundried olive and jazz blue.
Price: $148
Image: Love Story | FX Networks
4. The Black And White Desk-To-Dinner Dress
Nation Dulce Midi Dress
One reason it’s so hard to find a dress we love is that we simultaneously want to feel covered up and comfortable while still looking sleek and chic and sexy(ish). This dress is the perfect balance. It’s not too tight, but still skimming and slinky and makes us look our longest and loveliest.
Price: $167
Image: Pretty Woman | Touchstone Pictures
5. ANOTHER ICONIC JULIA DRESS (THIs TIME FOr dAYTIME)
The Jocelyn Sleeveless Slip Midi Dress by Maeve
We’ve been so obsessed with this dress for so many years that we actually wrote a whole article about the various modern versions that exist in the world today. But this one is reminds us so much of Julia’s and the smocking in the back makes it fit just right.
Price: $168
Image: Sex and the City | HBO
6. The Non-Boring, Knockout Event Dress
Norma Kamali Diana Dress
The exact same dress as Carrie’s. It fits beautifully, the ruching hiding any lumps and bumps, so we don’t feel self-conscious in something fitted.
Price: $200
Image: My Best Friend’s Wedding | TriStar Pictures
7. The SKIMMING LITTLE SHIFT DRESS
Quince 100% European Linen Tank Mini Dress
Another brilliant trick for wearing something loose and comfy is choosing an A-line (which doesn’t add too much volume) and a short length (which makes our legs look a mile long). A good shift dress can be styled a million and two ways. Silk scarf* round the neck. Tights and tall boots on cool days and strappy sandals on warm ones.
Price: $54
Image: The Better Sister | Amazon MGM Studios
8. The Much More Affordable White Dress From The Better Sister
Aritzia Ten
Audience Satin Halter Dress
When The Better Sister premiered, this dress garnered about as much attention as the show itself. But like too many things that flutter across our screens, the original costs over $1,000. This version from Aritzia has all the drape and elegance at a fraction of the price. With any strappy heel you already own, it’s absolute perfection.
Price: $158
Image: Friends | NBC
9. THE FLATTERING WORK DRESS
Aritzia Babaton
Bond Dress
Rachel Green’s work wardrobe still occupies way too many of our thoughts. But a lot of it was actually very simple, well-fitting dresses like this gem from Aritzia, which comes in any color you could want. Also look closely at the cut which isn’t too fitted but still gives you great shape - incredible on curves.
Price: $148
But wait … we can’t let you go without mentioning the suit dress:
Image: Friends | NBC
Lovers & Friends Jovie Blazer Mini Dress
Again, it’s all about the fit.
Price: $203
At The Candidly, we try a lot of stuff so you don’t have to. We only recommend things we truly love, and that we think you’ll love, too. All products are chosen independently by our creative team, and all details reflect the price and availability of products at the time of publication. If you buy something we link to, The Candidly may earn a commission.
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