When is summer dress season? The TikTok debate, explained.

Just like a hot dog is a sandwich or not liking Taylor Swift means you hate women (no and no), sundress season is one of those things that sparks eternal debate on the internet. The term entered the popular imagination in 2010, when an episode of how I Met Your Mother Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) extolled the virtues of clothing. Summer dresses, Ted! I don't think I can last another eight months without summer dresses. he says, then poses a riddle: which piece of women's clothing most arouses a man's desire? What light outfit, pink or white, makes the front of my pants unusually tight?

The answer, of course, is the sundress, which has since claimed cult status among horny heterosexual men and which, more than a decade later, still manages to fuel debate online. When you realize it's almost summer dress season, reads the caption of a viral TikTok of a man smiling in the grass and listening to Pocketful of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield. If you're a woman watching this, do your man a favor and buy them all, said another.

But like, what East a summer dress? In mid-April, Jacqueline Ryan, a 24-year-old from Baltimore, posed question to his TikTok following. I see all these videos of men saying how much they love sundresses, she said: What is a sundress? I own every dress. Which one is that of the sun? The video was ultimately viewed over 9 million times, but even after thousands of comments, no one could provide a definitive answer.

That's when Randy Trembacki, a 30-year-old video producer from Austin, replied with a long video, accompanied by visual aids, to show what he thinks men were thinking about when they excitedly talked about summer dress season: a mini dress with a fitted top and flowing bottom, usually in bright colors or a floral print. I'm not a psychiatrist, but I think it's a mixture of [fact that] It's cute and sexy at the same time, but without being trashy, he says on the phone when I ask him why men keep talking about themselves. It accentuates the female form, but in a conservative way.

For some, that didn't tell the whole story. Black woman and men clarified that when they talk about summer dress season, they are referring to dresses that are tight not only at the bodice, but also fitted along the entire length of the skirt. It's the dress that men break their necks to look at, a TikToker explained while wearing a stretchy, fitted maxi dress. The thirst account @SundressSzn has been publishing examples of women wearing these types of dresses since 2010.

Nikki Martin, a fit expert who has worked in the fashion industry for two decades, says she can understand the confusion among people of different backgrounds or generations. There's a difference between your grandmother saying sundresses and the kid from Harlem or Brooklyn saying sundress season, she explains. It took on new meaning in African-American culture for a certain generation.

I call it the Skims takeover, she adds, referring to Kim Kardashian's brand of dresses and bodycon ensembles. There's the younger generation where now everything is shaved, tight and tight, and so people don't necessarily adhere to the right terminology. They think everything is a sundress now.

His TikTok video explained that the term sundress actually has a specific meaning and a clear history. A summer dress is sleeveless, lightweight, and casual, usually with a more fitted bodice and an outward-flowing skirt. There's a specific reason for this: the summer dress as we know it today was born in post-war America, when designers began targeting an active clientele with more free time. than ever. The resulting category sportswear would form the basis of American fashion for the next century and remains what most people wear today. Designers like Claire McCardell and Carolyn Schnurer were particularly responsible for the silhouette and feel of the summer dress, which was designed to be simple, require minimal basic clothing, and could be worn for a variety of occasions. according to the Met.

In the 1960s, Florida socialite Lilly Pulitzer reinvented the summer dress to be even looser and more casual, intended to be worn without the girdles, briefs, or long bras popular during the decade (Pulitzer herself made sure they were lined so she could go without underwear). Unlike Pulitzer dresses made of stiff cotton poplin, modern clothing tends to be stretchier and more fitted, made with polyester, viscose, and other fabrics that are cheap to produce but terrible for the environment. That's the problem with fashion: it changes and yesterday's dresses will not necessarily be tomorrow's.

The reason we are talking about summer dresses is not at all because of the evolution of women's fashion but because of the male gaze. The talk of summer dresses, especially when men wear them, harkens back to an earlier era, one when women's magazines regularly touted articles on what men REALLY thought of your outfit and offered advice on how to dress. dress for your man. This doesn't happen as much anymore; Social media ushered in an era of broader understanding of feminism and body positivity, which the media and entertainment industries mirrored and sold back to us. Since then, the viral and exciting clothing items have usually been those worn by men and admired by women and gay men, from gray sweatpants to thigh-baring short shorts to the guy from Normal peoplechain necklace.

We are currently living in a strange time of gender dynamics online, with some research showing that young women lean more toward progressivism while young men lean to the right. This has created a renewed appetite for gender essentialist rhetoric from both men and women (take a look at some of the most viral dating advice content for a sample of this type of nihilism, men come from Mars, women come from Venus' point of view). The result is a brewing gender war, fueled in part by a backlash against Me Too, with influencers gaining influence by launching controversial opinions on sex and gender norms.

I think men are expressing their opinions online more and more, Ryan says when I ask him why the talk about sundress season seems to be more powerful this year. Take for example man who went viral for complaining about those fucking wrestling singlets he's seen women wearing (by which he means bodysuits and athletic sets). It's summer dress season, baby, come on! We men are waiting, take them out! he said.

This guy was rightfully roasted in the comments section, but the popularity of his video shows that when we talk about summer dresses, what we're really talking about is who decides what women put on their body and for what purpose. how I Met Your MotherSleazy residents discussing sexy summer dresses played like a standard sitcom joke in 2010, but in 2024, women are more likely to be wondering: Why the hell should I care what a man thinks about my clothes ? It's a common refrain for men to say that they like summer dresses because they make it easier to have sex. It's just as easy to imagine that being a reason why a woman might not want to wear one to avoid being sexualized. These days, a man on the Internet who complains that women don't wear summer dresses like they used to reads as reactionary, traditional, or anti-feminist, without necessarily liking women.

So it was never really about summer dresses. Martin guesses that the men involved in the sundress debate, if you can call it that, don't really care about the precise definition anyway. People say: Look, lady, we don't care what a summer dress is. We just want to see you pass. Ultimately, I think everyone should wear what they consider a sundress this summer, and we'll all be happy, echoes Trembacki. This year, however, it's a heavier decision than ever.