The Swing Dress, Oh yes!

I feel like every time I’m ready to get back into blogging something comes up and I get distracted. This time it was lovely diamond ring my boyfriend placed on my finger (Commence 8 hours of pinning wedding dresses on Pinterest). I suppose that’s a worthy distraction though 🙂

Anyway, I’m back for at least a little bit to discuss one of my favourite new trends, the swing dress! Oh my lordy, these are the best, so comfortable! They’re like maxi dresses minus the fear of stepping on the hem and tumbling down a staircase in front of your entire office…

They’re loose dresses that sort of hang off of your body. They’re perfect for hot days when you don’t want fabric clinging to you, and they’re awesome for disguising any bumps and lumps you may have. You can get them sleeveless, short sleeved, or long sleeved, which means I can even layer them for fall! They take a little bit of getting used to because of the lack of structure. This also means the fit is super important so that you look adorable and doll-like and not like you’re wearing a moo-moo. So let’s go over my 3 very simple rules for making a swing dress work for any body type:

1. Size: Swing dresses fit very true to size. They may look large and oversized, but that’s so they skim over your body. Do NOT be tempted to buy an XXS just because you can squeeze into it. It should only touch your chest and float away from your body.
2. Fabric: Make sure the fabric has a bit of weight to it, like jersey. Something like linen is probably too light and will end up looking tent-ish. It should have enough weight to drape well and sort of swing and bounce when you walk (hence the name).
3. Length: This is the most important! Because these are fairly shapeless dresses, they should not be long. Depending on your height, they should hit 2-3 inches ABOVE your knees. This keeps the dress from looking frumpy.

Here is an example of a bad fitting swing dress:

The dress hits half way down my knees, making it too long. The fabric is also a bit light and doesn’t fall onto my body the way it should. It ends up looking much too large. So here is an example of a well-fitting swing dress:

It hits about 3 inches above my knees and it’s a jersey fabric for it just barely skims my body, without sticking out like an oversized A-line dress. (Also, P.S. Stripes are super in and no they don’t make you look wider as long as you pick the right stripe).

If you haven’t tried these new dresses, take advantage of the last few weeks of summer and buy yourself one. Trust me, you’ll wear it every day! Also, please prepare yourself for a flood of wedding preparation ideas on my blog and IG (Follow me @aimeebee53)

Much Love XOXO,

Aimee