I'm going on my first proper holiday for 7 years in a month, and am fantasizing wearing a lovely comfortable but also flattering dress some of the time (although I expect to live in shorts/short skirts and vest tops most of the time).
I've trawled the shops unsuccessfully several times and worked out these criteria:
- I want cotton, not viscose or other such fabrics as I'm a total wuss about heat and I find cotton much cooler. Linen is too crumply. Cotton/linen mix might be okay. Or poly-cotton if it was more cotton than poly, but usually it is more poly than cotton.
- strappy is good as a) cooler and b) I hate the armpits of things digging in to me (I think I must have weirdly shaped armpits). Adjuststable straps is even better.
- plain colour or stripes or simple patterns suit me much better than flowers or other complex patterns. Pretty/girly looks awful on me (too old, hair wrong, personality unsuitable)
- I'm a Clear Winter - red, grey, bright greens, teal, turquoise, hot pink all good. White looks great but is too impractical on a family holiday.
- empire lines are good, although I don't have much bust or curves, so anything that relies on that to look good looks dreadful. Things that give me curves I don't really have are great.
- I don't mind about length, but not shorter than just above the knee. Maxi is good too. Not keen on mid-calf as tends to look frumpy, but would be fine with this length if it didn't.
I tried on this www.superdry.com/womens/dresses/details/43274/sunset-maxi-dress in Super Dry (not somewhere I would usually shop, but saw one in the window and went in). It was so nearly right but the effect was just too dull/dark coloured to look right as a sundress, IMHO. It also comes in shades of blue, but I don't like non-green blues. I am probably being ridiculously picky here!
I am quite tall, thinish but with usual post-pregnancies bit-of-a-stomach, only a B cup, and usually aim for elegant / striking, occasionally funky (not in the modern sense) in my clothes (which is hard to do in a sundress, which may be some of the trouble).
Any suggestions much appreciated, thank you!