Every spring, something strange happens on the Internet. As the warmer months approach, many men seem compelled to post about the allure of a woman in a summer dress. This simple wardrobe staple has long been a cause of inexplicable obsession, but this year people are asking questions.
Why do some men get so excited when they see summer dresses? Wait, do men even know what a summer dress is? Does anyone even know what a sundress is? As social media flooded with responses, it became clear that no one could agree on what makes a summer dress a summer dress (as opposed to a slip dress, day dress, shirt dress, caftan, sheath dress, or nap dress).
So we want to untangle this thread a little and ask you, the reader, to answer the question at hand: What is a summer dress?
Many people say summer dresses They're bright and floral, maybe blue or yellow. White is widely accepted. Pastels are classic. Black is divisive. No one really talks about gray.
On the resale platform Depop, a seller named Bianca Steele posted a “100% Viscose Black Bohemian Summer Dress Made in India.” The inky maxi dress was “definitely” a summer dress, Steele wrote on the messaging app, adding that she had personally enjoyed black summer dresses for more than four decades. She currently owns at least 10.
But Jeannie Stith, chief executive of Color Guru, a seasonal color analysis company, said she can’t endorse a black summer dress. “In general, we’ve been sold black as a universal color,” she said. “It’s really not.”
Ms Stith said the shades that flatter everyone are a combination of warm and cool tones. For summer dresses, these include peony, violet, teal and sage.
On a recent afternoon out in Lower Manhattan, three people wearing summer dresses, blocks away from each other, said that a summer dress can be any color that makes them happy. Although they all acknowledged that being sad in a summer dress was also valid.
Jana Smith wore a more cheerful example—for those who believe summer dresses have to be colorful—on Sixth Avenue.
A tight black dress seen in the park may not fit everyone's criteria. Anakeesta Ironwood, 19, said she would most easily identify it as a slip dress, but acknowledged that some people might also consider it a sundress.
“You've left me no choice but to explain things condescendingly. “Feminine fashion is key,” Randy Trembocki told his TikTok followers in May. Pointing to the empty space where he would insert an image of a Shein minidress, Trembecki, a 30-year-old podcast producer based in Texas, listed a few characteristics of a summer dress: fitted top, loose bottom.
Last month, on the phone, she explained to me: “It's conservative, but revealing. You know those music videos from the early 2010s, where you have the typical farmer's daughter?”
But she acknowledged that her viewpoint was not universal. Much of the feedback she received on her original TikTok came from Black viewers with different ideas about the quintessential summer dress.
In “Sundress Pt. 2,” Mr. Trembacki addressed comments such as, “Ask any black person what a sundress is and you’ll get the OPPOSITE answer.” In response, Mr. Trembacki included a fitted Skims slip as an example of a sundress.
“The black community’s preference for long, fitted dresses may emphasize a different aspect of allure, one that focuses on visual appeal and the celebration of body contours,” said Shelby Ivey Christie, a fashion historian and former board member of the Black in Fashion Council.
It's tight, it's black, it has spaghetti straps, but is it a summer dress? Its user, Yesenia Valverde, 25, said no. She considers summer dresses to be something you wear on vacation and said they should be loose and patterned. She said her dress didn't qualify primarily because of its color.
Some might consider this loose-fitting floral-print dress to be a prime example of this style. While that may be the case, Renee Monaco, 29, doesn't believe summer dresses need to be flowy to qualify as such. A summer dress is any dress that a person wears in the sun, she said.
Dictionary definitions of “summer dress” It is generally stipulated without sleeves.
But how thick is a strap before it becomes a sleeve? Is it necessary to show the shoulders? And what about tube tops?
James Hamilton Butler, director of the associate degree program in fashion design at Parsons School of Design, downplayed the question. Talking about sleeves is passé, Butler wrote via email. “We can be whoever we want without fear of being judged. (Not sure about strapless tops, though!)”
Sophie Strauss, who describes herself as “a stylist for everyday people,” says the question of sleeves depends on what the wearer wants out of a summer dress. In Los Angeles, where sundresses are trending, she sees customers gravitating toward the garment because it tends to “highlight parts of women’s bodies that we’re told to highlight and de-emphasize parts that we’re told to hide,” she said, listing brands with puffed sleeves.
Mr Trembacki, the TikToker, was not so dogmatic about the straps either. “There should be some kind of strap,” he said. “But there might as well not be.”
The scoop-neck silhouette may be controversial in the taxonomy of summer dresses, but its wearer says she considers her floral dress to be a summer dress.
According to some, the thin straps of this midi dress could place it firmly in summer dress territory.
At some point in the last few yearsThe traditionally simple and modest summer dress has taken on a peculiarly sexual charge (at least for those who are very connected to the Internet).
On the meme database Know Your Meme, a version of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs replaces survival requirements like “water” and “friendship” with a refrain about the activity induced by wearing sundresses, too vulgar to print.
What is it that makes “men go crazy for the ‘summer dress,'” as one user recently put it on X?
Kyle Brown, a writer who lives in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood and has a Joan Didion tattoo on his bicep, offered some insights into the contemporary male gaze.
“It’s an American pastoral fantasy,” Brown said, describing a gripping scene in which a man returns from gardening to find his wife, dressed in a summer dress, baking bread in the kitchen. “The men are confused.”
On the street, more practical considerations still prevail.
Lexi Hide, a photographer who wore a Chopova Lowena dress on Fifth Avenue on a hot day, explained her reasoning: “I thought a summer dress has to be airy enough that you don’t want to wear underwear.” She clarified that she simply likes the way it feels. “A nice, warm breeze,” she said.
Laura Meyers, 31, wore an above-the-knee dress on a recent afternoon. She said she thought it counted, but added that with its eclectic print and more muted palette, it can be hard to categorize.
Gabriella Chaves, 25, applied the “pop of red” trend when designing her long, flowing white dress. She said summer dresses should ideally be short, but she still thought hers fit the bill.
The summer dress may be more of an idea than an item of clothing. After canvassing Lower Manhattan for a possible consensus, I stopped by Reformation, a clothing store that some consider the mothership of summer dresses.
I didn’t remember the sundress Ms. Strauss, the personal stylist, had mentioned, only that it was named after a type of pasta. When I asked a saleswoman for help, she encouraged me to consider any dress in the store. A sundress is whatever you want it to be, she said, pointing to a fit-and-flare minidress in the shade “Last Tango.”
