Something strange unfolds on the internet every spring. As the warmer months approach, many men seem compelled to post about the allure of a woman in a tank top. The simple wardrobe staple has long been a point of inexplicable obsession, but this year, people are asking questions.
Why do some men get so excited at the sight of sundresses? Wait – do men even know what a sundress is? Does anyone know what a sundress is? As social media flooded with responses, it became clear that no one could agree on what made a sundress a sundress (as opposed to a slip dressone day dressone dress changea shirtdress, a caftan, a tube dress or a nightgown).
So we want to unravel this thread a bit and ask you, the reader, to answer the question: What is a sundress?
Many say sundresses they are bright and flowery, maybe blue or yellow. White is widely accepted. Pastels are classic. Black is divisive. Nobody really talks about gray.
On resale platform Depop, a seller named Bianca Steele posted a “Boho Black Sundress 100% Viscose sundress made in India”. The inky maxi was “definitely” a sundress, Ms Steele wrote via in-app messenger, adding that she had personally enjoyed black sundresses for more than four decades. He currently owns at least 10.
But Jeannie Stith, the CEO of Color Guru, a seasonal color analysis company, said she can’t condone a black sundress. “In general, black has been sold to us as a universal color,” he said. “Actually it’s not.”
Ms Stith said the universally flattering shades had a mix of warm and cool tones. For sundresses, including peony, myrtle, teal and sage.
While I was in Lower Manhattan on a recent afternoon, three tank tops—spaced out—said that a romper can be any color that makes you happy. Although everyone recognized that being sad in a sundress was also valid.
Jana Smith wore a happier example—for those who think sundresses should be colorful—on Sixth Avenue.
A black, sleek dress spotted in the park may not suit everyone. Anakeesta Ironwood, 19, said she would recognize it more easily as a slip dress, but admitted some people might mistake it for a sundress.
“You left me no choice but to explain women’s fashion,” Randy Trembacki he told viewers on TikTok in May. Gesturing around the empty space where he would insert an image of a Shein minidress, Mr. Trembecki, a 30-year-old podcast producer based in Texas, named some characteristics of a sundress: fitted top, comfortable bottom.
On the phone last month, he elaborated: “It’s conservative but revealing. You know music videos from around the early 2010s where she’s kind of the farmer’s daughter?’
But he acknowledged that his view was not universal. Much of the feedback she received on her original TikTok came from Black viewers with different ideas about the quintessential sundress.
In “Sundress Pt. 2,Mr. Trembakis addressed comments such as: “Ask any black person what a sundress is and you will get the OPPOSITE answer.” In response, Mr. Trembacki included a clingy slip by Skims as an example of a sundress.
“The black community’s preference for dresses, long dresses, may emphasize a different aspect of glamour, one that focuses on visual appeal and celebration of body contour,” said Shelby Ivey Christie, a fashion historian and former board member of Black in. Fashion Council.
It’s tight-fitting, it’s black, it’s got spaghetti straps—but is it a sundress? Its user, Yesenia Valverde, 25, said no. She considers sundresses something to wear on vacation and said they should be flowy and printed. She said her dress didn’t qualify mainly because of its color.
Some might consider this loose, floral print dress a great example of the form. While that may be the case, Renee Monaco, 29, didn’t think sundresses had to be stretchy to qualify. A sundress is any dress one wears in the sun, he said.
Dictionary definitions of “sundress” they usually define sleeveless.
But how thick is a strap before it becomes a sleeve? Should you see a shoulder? What about pipe tops?
James Hamilton Butler, the director of the graduate fashion design program at Parsons School of Design, dismissed the question. The sleeve debate is out of date, Mr. Butler wrote in an email. “We can be who we want to be without fear of judgment. (Not sure about the pipe tops though!)”
Sophie Strauss, who calls herself a “stylist for regular people,” says the question of sleeves depends on what the wearer wants to get out of the sundress. In cheery Los Angeles, she sees customers gravitate toward the garment because it tends to “play up parts of the female body that we’re told to play up and downplay the parts that we’re told to hide,” she said, rocking the brands. with large puffy sleeves.
Mr. Trembacki, the TikToker, was not so dogmatic about the leashes. “There should be some kind of strap,” he said. “However, there couldn’t be a strap either.”
A V-neck silhouette can be divisive in the sundress classification. But every time she says she thinks of her floral dress as a flannel.
The thin straps on this midi dress might put it firmly in sundress territory, according to some.
Sometime in the last few years, the sundress — traditionally homey and demure — came to take on a strange sexual charge. (At least for those who are extremely online.)
On meme database Know Your Meme, a riff on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs replaces survival requirements like “water” and “friendship” with a refrain about sundress-induced activity too vulgar to print .
What is it that makes ‘men go crazy about the sundress’, as one X user recently put it?
Kyle Brown, a writer who lives in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood and has a Joan Didion bicep tattoo, offered some insight into the modern male gaze.
“It’s all about this pastoral American fantasy,” Mr. Brown said, describing a passionate scene involving a man who has come in from the yard to find his flannel-clad wife in the kitchen baking bread. “Men are confused.”
On the road, more practical considerations still prevail.
Lexi Hide, a photographer wearing a Chopova Lowena dress on Fifth Avenue on a hot day, explained her reasoning. “I thought a romper should be airy enough that you don’t want to wear underwear.” She made it clear that she just likes how it feels. “Nice warm breeze,” he said.
Laura Meyers, 31, wore an above-the-knee dress on a recent afternoon. She said she thought it counted, but added that, with its eclectic print and more muted palette, it can be hard to categorize.
Gabriella Chaves, 25, used the “pop of red” trend when designing her long, airy white dress. She said sundresses should ideally be short — but that she still thought hers made the cut.
It may be that the sundress is more of an idea than an article of clothing. After scouring Lower Manhattan for a possible bargain, I stopped at Reformation, a clothing store that some consider the mothership of sundresses.
I couldn’t remember the particular sundress that Ms. Strauss, the personal stylist, had mentioned, except that it was named after a type of pasta. When I asked a saleswoman for help, she encouraged me to consider any dress in the store. A sundress is whatever you want it to be, she said, showing me a mini fitting in the shade Last Tango.
