I found my perfect SRD from the Jigsaw sale a couple of years ago. But even though it was heavily discounted and no more expensive than something from Next, because it was Jigsaw it has a silk trim and needs to go in the delicates wash, so I feel disinclined to wear it all the time, and I’m worried it will fade. So I need to add to the list of required attributes “Must be something you’re willing to shove in the washing machine every other day”.
And yes it’s called a SRD but that’s just MN shorthand for “summer dress that looks respectable that you feel really comfortable in and for which you don’t have to worry about whether you’re wearing the right underwear, that can be thrown on in literally fifteen seconds when you’ve just finished undercoating the toilet and are late for the doctors/dentist/hairdresser/cinema/returning books to library before they shut or, even collecting children from school (especially if that’s combined with after school socialisation of some sort), and in which you can run to the limits of your personal physical fitness”. If you never find yourself in a situation where such a garment would be useful then either your life is very different to mine or you live in the Highlands of Scotland. But yes I guess it does date from a time when (middle class) women didn’t wear running tights/yoga pants with waist length tops in public at all times of day. Strange how normal that’s become so quickly. Fifteen years ago it would have given rise to a huge outburst of pearl-clutching. SRD’s are still quicker though, and less icky to put on if you’re actually a bit sweaty from whatever you were doing before you got dressed - unless you’d been doing a workout or a run of course and were already in gym wear of course.