So what are we wearing instead of floral midi dress and white trainers this Spring?

[KrabiBeach]

Like many 35-55yo women I've been wearing a floral midi dress with trainers every Spring/Summer for the past few years. I always buy dresses with pockets and love the comfort, practicality and coolness (temperature-wise) on a sunny day. Easy to layer under a denim jacket, biker or blazer and wear with any white trainers or converse etc.

It was inevitable that such an easy outfit would become so ubiquitous that the fashion world declared it "dead".

I'm gutted but I am a follower of style. So yes, I know it's shallow but this is the Style board so.... What other outfits fit the brief?

One journalist in the Sunday papers suggested trouser suits are the new floral midi dress and trainers. But I don't think a trouser suit would work in a hot day like a flowery dress would, no matter how much you keep it casual with a t-shirt and trainers - it's still too hot surely?

If you're a follower of trends, what will you be wearing instead of floral midi from now on?

(Article for reference: amp.theguardian.com/fashion/2023/feb/10/john-lewis-declares-death-of-the-floral-midi-dress)

@MrsCarson these are also alternatives I attempt. Please can I ask, where do you get your tunics from?

I disagree that this is a timeless look. It will look dated very shortly and sort of already does.

Respect to those sticking with it and not giving a shit. I will adapt however as I always have done and enjoy keeping up with style.

I think the colour block dresses are a good shout, plus abstract patterns. Platform converse and chunky Dad trainers also good.

Was just shopping and saw a stunning green wide leg linen suit which would look amazing with a white t-shirt and adidas trainers and necklace, so I could be converted for some sunny days.

Yes denim maxi skirts are back but I think they can be a bit stifling in very hot weather so more of a Spring option perhaps.

I work in fashion, I didn’t do the floral dress and trainers thing but they are only declaring it ‘dead’ because they want to sell you something new.
It’s bullshit

Well of course but that's the nature of fashion. It's ultimately all bollocks!!!

Surprised some of the posters here are reading the Style board!

I hate having the bottom half of my legs covered once the weather is warm, it makes me hot.

So for work I've bought some nobody's child culottes and for the day weekend one of the Me and Em cheesecloth knee length dresses.

I couldn't do the floral midi dress, made me look like I'd got dressed in a jumble sale.

I have been wearing maxi dresses floral and otherwise since the early 1990's and I will continue to do so .I cannot wear short dresses as I have a wonky ankle from a break in my early 20's and I am also quite tall so short dresses do not suit me .I also wear palazzo pants and have done for years .

I don’t know what the ‘new’ uniform is for basics

Women have been wearing floral day dresses since the 1950’s , and they keep doing it - because it is practical and looks attractive.

Are you related to the ‘head of fashion’ at a well known department store, who made this pronouncement recently? Have the customers not been playing ball?

Same here. You’ll pry my floral dresses from my cold, dead fingers.

However, I don’t own a pair of white trainers.

I was in the shops the other day (very rarely go) and lots of the midi dresses have a really stretchy tshirt style top, then go down into a more traditional dress material.

Still in dresses, but block colours (tbh I was often in block colours anyway as floral aren't me) but with cream ankle boots in spring and probably chunky sandals in summer. I'm a bit fed up of trainers

That’s what my DD used to wear when she was a toddler !

I think it’s the trousers suit but for really hot days, shorts instead of trousers. Linen shorts/matching shirts were everywhere at the end of last summer and will be back big time I reckon

H and M have loads of lovely bright print and mono print shirt dresses. I've bought two. No pockets though 😪

I will still wear midi length dresses, have been wearing them for years and I don’t follow fashion at all, (I’m on this board for the beauty tips rather than anything to do with style, i defo have none 😂) - I just want to be comfortable and not buying clothes all the time.

It looked daft if someone eore that ten years ago so I very much doubt that it will become a timeless classic. I could be wrong but I really think it's just a trend.

I've been shopping for more just this week. I'll shop anywhere.
Roman has some nice ones, Cotton traders have a couple I'm looking at too.

Midi dress is staying for me never did the florals but I love a geometric print or plain colour paired with pumps. Easy and effortless

No I think its hear to stay, the practical/comfortable ones always do.

10 years ago MN was saying stylish women wouldn't dream of wearing trainers ever, unless they were exercising. Surely no one thinks trainers will go out of fashion?

This is so true.

I'm going to be wearing my chunky black gladiator style sandals instead of the white trainers with dresses. Also wearing maxi skirts with an oversized blazer, bootcut and wide legged jeans with floral blouses and chunky trainers, cropped wide legged jumpsuits and flat t-bat shoes or light coloured loafers.

Am 47. There have been variations of this look for decades - I was wearing this 10 years ago, and 10 years before than, and in my late teens when grunge was all the rage - there is always some version of a floral dress, jacket and trainers. (In my late teens, I wore floral dresses with biker boots.) I have pictures of my mother wearing Laura Ashley floral dresses albeit with espadrilles or clogs in the 70s. Skip back further, floral dresses were worn in each and every decade. Floral dress are nothing new, and a timeless classic. As for colour block dresses, again, these have been around forever too.

The only thing that really changes is the cut of the dress. Fashion trends work in cycles, but there will always be staples that are adapted and reworked to look fresh.

Slightly cropped floral long sleeved top (H and M and Zara have lots) with jeans in either white or denim, high waisted and straight / Mom / wide legged. And I'm skipping trainers and going straight to sandals. Maybe a chunky espadrille flatform.

Agreed, the wall to wall midi dresses in M&S and John Lewis is just too much. I do own one or two which are very comfortable on a hot day but I have to say made me feel a bit like I was drowning in fabric. I am happier in cargos, cropped chinos or shorts and a white tshirt or linen shirt.

Lily Allen made the white trainers and dresses look a bit ubiquitous in the mid '00s iirc. The whole festival chic thing. It isn't a recent invention. Actually, didn't Courtney Love also wear this sort of look in the 90s grunge era?

But the last few years really have been dominated, specifically by floral midis, white trainers and denim / biker jackets where I am (near London in commuter belt). So, I'm looking forward to something slightly different.

I hope I can keep wearing trainers a lot though as I like them for comfort