Looking for summer dresses… again?
An alternative find to a seasonal search.
Words by Raquel Fernández Sobrín
We are creatures of habit. Even if we constantly try to fight against this aspect of our nature, we trip over the same rock. We do what we said we never would do again or do what we always do because if we always do it, why should we change it? Things like checking the time on our phone every two minutes, keep on wondering about what went wrong in that relationship we don’t want to remember out loud, or adding just a pinch of sweetener to our coffee or tea. According to certain digital marketing tools, we also use the search engines at our fingertips to find summer dresses at this time of year. Google Trends gives us away – in a quick glance at its statistics it is possible to understand why “Zara” has become a keyword in the headlines of your favorite fashion magazine -, Answer the Public reveals our deepest doubts (“Which dresses are in fashion”, “long summer dresses”, “party dresses 2021”) and Lyst, the search engine of those who already have their credit cards on the table, is the best indicator of the real trends because since the beginning of spring it has shown us victims of Dua Lipa’s Versace chain dress and the craze for Halston’s halter models after the premiere of the series on Netflix. Beyond the consumerist impulses associated with cultural products, the interest in summer dresses comes back every year. Why?
The obvious answer, that dresses are a seasonal garment, deserves a second and third consideration because their necessity cannot be compared to that of coats in winter and swimwear in summer. It is possible to wear the same dress combined with one thing or another throughout the year despite of the weather changes, but it is true that dresses have something in common with the spirit of the three months we have ahead of us at this very moment.
Summer is the season when we make things easy (and easier) for ourselves. The season we aloud ourselves to breathe. A time when it doesn’t seem to be so important that it’s one o’clock in the morning and we are still sitting on the terrace of a bar, even if the next day we have to face the same working day as in January, because the heat and the hours of daylight help us to play down time. A specific period in which we allow ourselves to forget our worries and let ourselves go more easily. Summer is the best time of the year pretty much just because of the hope of it being so. Because of the time we spend waiting for it to arrive. In summer there is no alarm clock, we experience the feeling of having absolutely nothing to do and we consider it normal to see the sunrise. It is reasonable to think that a wardrobe of dresses is appropriate for these months, as with a single garment any style complication is solved.
So maybe every time we type “summer dresses” again, what we’re really doing is anticipating all those emotions we associate with it. That we’re not looking for yet another summer dress (Google, you and I know we already have enough of those), but to be closer to its long days and short nights. Good news is that they have finally arrived. We can stop looking. Happy summer.
Photos: House of Sunny / Liv Tyler in ‘Stealing Beauty’ (1996)
