The Range: Dresses for Summer

For most of my adult life, I wore only dresses and skirts. I owned two pair of pants, two pair of jeans, and only wore them when it was too cold to pick anything else without risking hypothermia. But then, COVID happened, I spent a year doing IVF, then almost a year being pregnant, and another two years trying to navigate a post-partum body and toddler-Mom-life, and some things changed.

Recently, I’ve rediscovered dresses. I still want sleeves, because I’m trying/failing to gain enough confidence to show the arms I thought were too shapeless to be shown to the world 30lbs ago, and I need them to be a little longer so I don’t risk flashing parents at the playground if I need to climb a play structure to retrieve my child. But I missed dresses. I missed the ease of dresses. I missed not needing to care about the proportions of separates or whether the shirt that goes with those shorts is clean. I missed not needing to do anything but slip a dress over my head, slide my feet into sandals, and GO.

I am a dress girlie. And here are the mostly under-$100 frocks that I will be wearing all summer. Because let’s be real, at least one of them is going to wind up covered in ketchup.

This LOFT dress has a flutter sleeve, and easy style, and is so pretty on. All the elements of a Hill House Nap dress without the extra dose of Prairie Home Companion costumery. Did I mention it’s also <$50?

Need a dress that does work, and then dinner, and then playground? This Mila Mae dress is an easy wear. It blends well into almost any wardrobe.

This Land’s End dress is the perfect encapsulation of summer fun. The stripe is so vibrant. Need a dress for the pool that can transition to a casual dinner or a grocery store run? This is it. Available in petite and plus. Also under-$50.

I own this Old Navy dress in a color way from 2024. It has been washed approximately 95x, and it still looks great and wears well. It’s such an easy toss on, it works for so many occasions, and I sized to a small, because it’s pretty oversized and I just want a little oversized. Also in tall and petite.

Sometimes I just want to look pretty and go to brunch. Is it shallow? Yes. But every now and then, I just want to put on dress, throw on some lipstick, drink an Aperol spritz and pretend I have my s**t together. This Boden dress is one of my favorites for drawing complements from waiters and passersby. Because sometimes you need that too.

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