Wardrobe Staple: The Summer Dress

Sale PSA: the beautiful Kate Spade Lana pumps I mentioned months back are now 40% off, one of my favorite Helmut Lang black draped jackets (you can wear it casually or over suiting pants) is now 40% off, and classic, always useful black-on-black Converse Chuck Taylors, now $38 (add it to your cart to see the price).

Every year, I go through the same ordeal of finding a few perfect summer dresses for my closet. There’s always a few that need to be retired due to wear and tear, shrinkage, etc, so I view it as basic replenishment. I always add basic t-shirt dresses, casual cotton ones that I can wear at the beach – but I also look for slightly dressier ones.

This season I found what I consider my absolute perfect summer dress. It had a lovely silhouette, fit perfectly right from the get go, and came in beautiful colors. It was super comfortable to wear (the kind that you could don to a buffet if you get my drift), and would work equally well at work to casually with sandals, to even at a wedding. Hurrah!

And some even cooler facts? The dress was on sale for $100, and was machine washable. Yes you heard me right! Machine washable (I’ve tested it out and the dress come out fine, use the delicates setting though).

Without further ado, I present my favorite summer dress this season, the Signe dress from Anthropologie.

Some details on the dress – the material has a swiss dot texture.

Yes, I ordered two colors with the full intention of returning one. However, Mr. Feather liked the dress so much that I ended up keeping both. I can’t remember the last time my husband liked any dress I tried on that was $100 (with the exception of the mini dresses he’s always pointing out in the windows of Wet Seal).

The blue (called “Navy” on the Anthropologie website), is a deep blue/purple in real life. I took the size 0P in both dresses and I was very happy with the fit. I do think there is some leeway with sizing and I could have probably taken a size down or up with no problem.

Anthropologie Dress, $99 (on sale!)

Some other inspiration for summer dresses. I picked examples where you could envision these dresses being worn with both casual flats or heels. It’s only summer dresses in my experience that can go from both casual to dressy so easily – the other seasons are more difficult to pull off!

Up first, Rachel Bilson in a floaty white number.

Alexa Chung (doesn’t everything look good when you’re this tall though?).

And my favorite, a woman whose name I unfortunately don’t know. But isn’t she incredibly stylish? And her Birkin complements her outfit (instead of being the main highlight), and looks totally appropriate.

What are some of your favorite summer dresses? Please share!