What is a summer dress? – The New York Times

Every spring, a strange trend occurs on the internet. As the warmer months approach, many men seem compelled to post about how attractive a woman looks in a summer dress. This simple wardrobe staple has long been a subject of inexplicable obsession, but this year, people are asking questions.

Why do some men get so excited to see summer dresses? Wait, do men even know what a summer dress is? Does anyone know what a summer dress is? As social media flooded with responses, it became clear that no one could agree on what made a summer dress a summer dress (as opposed to a sundress). nightie dressA day dressA spare clothesa shirt dress, a caftan, a tube dress or a nap dress).

So we want to untangle this thread a little and ask you, the reader, to answer the question: what is a summer dress?

Many people say that summer dresses are 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 listed a black boho sundress made of 100% viscose made in India. The black maxi dress was most likely a sundress, Steele wrote on the app’s in-app messaging, adding that she has personally loved black sundresses for more than four decades. She currently owns at least 10.

But Jeannie Stith, CEO of Color Guru, a seasonal color analysis company, said she can't endorse a black summer dress. Black has typically been sold to us as a universal color, she said. In fact, it's not.

Stith said universally flattering hues are a mix of warm and cool tones. For summer dresses, that includes peony, periwinkle, teal and sage.

On an outing in Lower Manhattan one recent afternoon, three people wearing sundresses within a few blocks of each other declared that a sundress can be any color that makes you happy. Although each acknowledged that being sad in a sundress was also valid.

An even more cheerful example for those who believe that summer dresses should be colorful and float down Sixth Avenue.

A tight black dress spotted in the park may not fit everyone's criteria. Anakeesta Ironwood, 19, said she would most likely identify it as a slip dress, but acknowledged that some people might also consider it a sundress.

You left me no choice but to justify yourself. women's fashion, Randy Trembacki told viewers on TikTok In May, gesturing around the blank space where he would insert an image of a Shein minidress, Mr. Trembecki, a 30-year-old podcast producer based in Texas, named some of the characteristics of a summer dress: fitted top, flowy bottom.

On the phone this month, he clarified: “It’s conservative but revealing. You know the music videos from the early 2010s, where there was the farmer’s daughter kind of thing?”

But he acknowledged that his perspective wasn't universal. Most of the comments he received on his original TikTok came from Black viewers with different ideas about the quintessential summer dress.

In Summer dress Pt. 2, Mr. Trembacki responded to comments such as, “Ask any black person what a sundress is and you will get the OPPOSITE answer.” In response, Mr. Trembacki included a skintight Skims jumpsuit as an example of a sundress.

Black communities' preference for long, form-fitting dresses may emphasize a different aspect of appeal, one that focuses on visual appeal and celebrating the contours of the body, 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 wearer, Yesenia Valverde, 25, said no. She considers summer dresses to be something you wear on vacation and said they should be flowy and printed. She said her dress was ineligible mainly because of its color.

Some might consider this loose floral-print dress a perfect example of that shape. While that may be true, Rene Monaco, 29, doesn't think summer dresses have to be flowy to qualify. A summer dress is any dress a person wears in the sun, she said.

Dictionary definitions of sundress generally stipulate the absence of sleeves.

But how thick does a strap have to be before it becomes a sleeve? Do you have to see the shoulder? And what about tube tops?

James Hamilton Butler, director of the fashion design program at Parsons School of Design, shrugged off the question. Talking about sleeves is passé, Butler wrote in an email. We can be whoever we want without fear of judgment. (I’m not sure about tube tops, though!)

Sophie Strauss, who considers herself a stylist for everyday people, says the question of sleeves depends on what the wearer of the sundress wants to achieve. In Los Angeles, where sundresses are commonplace, she finds that customers are drawn to the garment because it tends to highlight parts of a woman's body that are meant to show off, and downplay parts that are meant to hide, she says, listing brands that offer big, puffy sleeves.

Mr. Trembacki, the TikToker, wasn’t as dogmatic about the straps issue either. There should be some kind of strap, he said. But there could also be no strap.

The crewneck silhouette may be divisive in the summer dress taxonomy. But the wearer says she considers her floral dress a summer dress.

The thin straps of this midi dress would place it firmly in the realm of summer dresses, according to some.

At some point in the last few yearsThe traditionally simple and modest summer dress has taken on a special sexual charge. (At least for those who are extremely connected.)

In the meme database Know Your Meme, a riff on Maslow's hierarchy of needs replaces survival requirements like water and friendship with a refrain about the activity induced by summer dresses that's too vulgar to print.

What is it about summer dresses that makes men so crazy, as one X user recently put it?

Kyle Brown, a writer who lives in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood and has a tattoo of Joan Didion on his bicep, offered a glimpse into the contemporary male gaze.

“It’s all this American pastoral fantasy,” Mr. Brown said, describing a passionate scene involving a man who comes home from working in the garden to find his wife in a sundress in the kitchen making bread. 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 should be airy enough that you don’t want to wear underwear.” She explained that she simply liked the way it felt. “A nice, warm breeze,” she said.

Laura Meyers, 31, recently donned a dress that hits above her knee. She said she thinks it counts, but added that with its eclectic print and more muted palette, it might be hard to categorize it.

Gabriella Chaves, 25, used the red trend to style her long, airy white dress. She said summer dresses should ideally be short, but she still thought hers fit the bill.

The sundress may be more of an idea than an item of clothing. After scouring Lower Manhattan for potential consensus, I stopped at Reformation, a clothing store some consider the mothership of sundresses.

I didn’t remember the specific sundress that 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 told me, showing me a fit-and-flare minidress in the shade Last Tango.