Could you survive with a dress-only wardrobe?

[movinghomeadvice]

I’m moving back to my home country in 2026, and the new year has me thinking about the clothes I’m going to bring back with me. I realise that I actually hate most of my clothes, especially my professional wardrobe, and I really only like the dresses and skirts I have.

It got me thinking: Could I only ever wear dresses/skirts for the rest of my life? Jessica Diner, who works at Vogue I think, only wears dresses and she always looks amazing. I love how she describes a dress:
‘It's foolproof. A dress asks so little of you in the morning: it's one piece, pulled from a hanger, then out the door, looking pulled together.’

So, am I crazy to think that I could pull this off? And never wear jeans again!? (Obviously I would still wear active wear to workout and bathing suits to swim etc.)

Agree. My wardrobe is 99% dresses and I don’t get the pockets thing. None of mine have pockets - I’m not a fan tbh.

I come from a very, extremely religious family where the women only wear dresses. Growing up, outside of this because I'm atheist, I steered clear of dresses. But well into adulthood I found my own love for them. I can garden, clean, lounge, walk the dog, etc., all from the extreme comfort of dresses. I've recently branched out into skirts. I do love them too, but they don't have the ease of a dress when I'm stuck for what to wear the answer is always going to be a dress. It's a whole outfit, requires no coordinating.

I would love to wear only dresses and tights every day but I also get annoyed by tights lol, so I rely on some leggings too, never jeans though, can not go jeans!

yes just throw a cardigan or jumper over it and its sorted (in cold months)

Nope, I don't own a single dress. I need a waistline so it's separates for me.

Agree but isn't it funny that the clothes we once hunted down, and loved, become, well, boring after a while. I wonder if (& I'm talking about myself here) it's the delight of the new and shiny that excites?

I must do better next year.

My Granny certainly did! Not sure I know anyone my own age who would. Exercising?

It's pretty much what I do.

I'm a fundamentally lazy person who far prefers to get as much sleep as possible when it actually happens - and to exert as little mental energy as possible when rudely awakened by the need to make a living.

A dress means alarm, bathroom, shower, underwear, frock, coffee, shoes, coat and bag.

Separates means alarm, bathroom, shower, underwear, top, bottoms, check the top goes well with the bottoms, second guess myself, top, check, socks, socks that work with that pair of shoes and aren't too thick, too thin or have holes in, shoes, coat, bag, no time for coffee.

One dress means one run over with the steamer. A top and trousers means two items that actually need the ironing board out and to be carefully ironed.

The only thing I'd add is the requirement for sports appropriate wear for anything active.

No because my work is bloody freezing and I need thermal leggings and then trousers!

It's cold legs not arms that cause the issue in winter.

Tight are a pain to put on and takevoff and rip easily. Leggings might work but needs to be the right dress/leggings/footwear combo.

Good summary! And throw in the weirdness that is "this top/trouser/shoe combo looked fine last week, but looks like a train wreck today, so now I have to try on all my clothes to find a combo that works for whatever weirdness that makes today so different"

I wear dresses all summer.

Definitely - the 'this waistband fitted fine last week, but I feel like I've got a football where my uterus used to be' and 'well, my boobs looked alright last time I wore this, but there's a great big gap where they were then this morning' is an extra level of complication to the ensemble I just don't need at stupid o'clock, compared to 'over the head and sorted'.

This and stuff like walking dogs

I could most of the time but would need some trousers for dog walking and taking my DD to riding lessons in winter!

I hate tights. So wearing dresses in winter, fuck that.

No way could I go back to wearing tights - horrible things and never look good

Honestly, I would be a dress only gal if I hadn’t inherited my mother’s lovely hairy legs 🤣.

I wear leggings and tights in cold.

No way for me. I look awful in dresses as I’m so fat.

I only wear leggings and tunics.

I’ve never really understood the antipathy to dresses. Separates look awful on my fat busty hourglass body - I’m just a lumpy sausage from top to toe. A dress looks far more swishy and put together. Add a tailored jacket and some mid heels and I’m positively slinky. Easier too.

I own a pair of shorts that I sometimes wear in the summer (they are quite culotte like though), a pair of trousers for occasional use, i.e. I took them travelling, and a pair of tracksuit bottoms.

Otherwise I live in dresses with the odd skirt thrown in. I have ancient dresses I do DIY and gardening in, dungaree dresses for casual, and an entire wardrobe of below the knee dresses that cover literally every other occasion.

95% dresses and skirts for me.

Totally. Completely obsessed with dresses 😂

The majority of my wardrobe is made up of dresses though I do have some trousers for walking or going camping. I don’t have any shirts so day to day wear is always a dress. I love them.