I don't get the shapeless dress look

[Houseplantmad]

I follow a few "style" people on Instagram and it's full of these shapeless dresses that are in lovely prints but look like grannie's nightie! They don't do anything for those wearing them - in fact, they make them look dumpy and frumpy - and I just don't get why they're so popular. Can anyone explain please?

It's a fashion thing. Not everything fashionable is slimming.

Everyone's figure looks the same in them. There could be anything going on underneath. It's actually quite freeing . There's never a question of is this too tight, is my tummy too big. You can forget all of that. Just pick a pattern/colour you like and off you go. I'm all for it.

I don’t like. Makes me look bigger than I am. But there’s other styles you can wear

You don't have to "get" it. I dislike leggings and dresses but plenty of people love them.

As pp said it's just a fashion thing, fashion shifts and changes. Not everything we wear has to look slimming. I quite like the look.

I really like the look! Can I be cheeky on your thread, OP and ask anyone for a link to their favourite styles?

I don’t like the look much myself but I think that’s partly because we are conditioned, as women, to always seek to look as desirable as possible in a very narrow sense. Those dresses say ‘I’m dressing for my own comfort and not for the benefit of anyone else’. The way heels are losing popularity is along similar lines. It’s pretty feminist I think.

I have a really small frame so can get easily swamped in clothes and don’t like the feeling of loads of excess fabric or wearing dresses in the first place so for me that wouldn’t be dressing for comfort.

It's a fashion silhouette and nothing to do with comfort.

I have been wearing shapeless stuff for years. It's what I like. Other women are always saying but oh you have a lovely figure, why not show it off. Like as women we should always be revealing our silhouettes. Or believing that slim deserves recognition in some way.

I wouldn't wear skinny jeans if you paid me. I don't like them. Or leggings (unless running) but don't claim not to "get" other people's choices.

Some of them remind me of my old dressing up box

I'm petite and wouldn't wear a dress that wasn't fitted for that reason but it is frustrating as I keep seeing them in beautiful prints! I don't think they'd look look right with a belt.

OP - I could have written your post myself. I more or less live in dresses, particularly during the summer, but not these.

I think they only look good if you have decent shoulders for them to hang off and fabulous legs sticking out of the bottom. Sadly I have neither!

I used to think that but I've come to the realisations mentioned by others that clothing for women has always been about showing your body, emphasising your best bits, being sexy, looking slimmer etc. It was so pervasive you didn't really question it at the time - well, I didn't.

Now I'm thinking I don't have to aim for any of the above. It's very freeing actually.

I love them. I live in a hot country and they are cool and comfortable. And I'm tall and thin and they look great on me.

I'm a bit ambivalent. Yes they are more comfy than other fashions but they are a fashion after all. Also badly fitted clothes get in the way and are impractical.

It's fashion having a swing to a times of longer hemlines/worse economy, the 70's/80's look coming round again, and a continued tendency to clothes that don't rely on a toned figure as so few of us have one any more. Fashion has to keep reinventing itself and making last year's style look a bit rubbish.

"Attractive" or "frumpy" is what you are conditioned to see as current style. 10-15 years ago everyone was gasping about the idea of skinny jeans and going on about "parsnip legs".

Hold onto your shift dresses and see you in 10 years.

parsnip legs

lol!

I seem to live in leggings these days. I used to wear jeans but they feel so uncomfortable and restricting, I can't bear them. I like my clothes to feel that comfortable I hardly feel I'm wearing any! I do think this is partly due to lockdown etc. though.

Apparently this style is very popular with retailers due to the move to online shopping. Dresses look striking in photos and the loose fit means it suits most women so fewer returns.

Plus they are really really cheap to make.

I don't get it either. I know women don't have to look attractive all the time but why spend money on something that makes everyone look ugly?
It is possible to make dresses which are both comfy and nice.

I love it but am v short and large of breast so it’s not the best look on me I’m really attracted to boxy clothes in general, unfortunately (and I never learn)

The other thing I don’t get is those teeny tiny absolutely string like bikinis where pretty much even the tiniest of women look like they have a huge bottom...

Large bottoms are in tbf