In praise of the midi dress with puffed sleeves

the evergreen endurance of a single garment for all seasons of motherhood.

Photo by Maggie Witter Photography | Dress by Hill House

I’ve been reading a bit more fiction lately and discovered a funny tweet from one of the new authors I’m enjoying. In a moment of frustration, she lamented about the trend of midi dresses with sleeves. While I love me a good dress, I do empathize with despising certain trends. It’s evident that some silhouettes flatter some body types and not others.

Pretty much every day I wear a midi dress with puffed sleeves. I love them.

I have no conviction against jeans, I just haven’t found a pair that both fits properly or are comfortable. So, around 2017 I stopped wearing then. It was gradual. I donated my final pair of jeans after the pandemic. I’d love to find some at some point, but I don’t really have the energy to go try some on. I could be wrong but it doesn’t sound like a good time. I did recently try to put on a pair of Seth’s jeans, thinking we could share, but couldn’t get them over my very much childbearing hips.

My body has changed so much over the past six years and four babies. It is rare that a garment will endure. I’ll stick to my midi dresses with sleeves. It’s not a religious thing, it’s just what I feel cute in.

I love a good midi dress for several reasons:

They’re long enough where you can bend down without embarrassment. I can get on the floor with the kids and play with them without worry.

Short sleeves mean I can layer on a knit if it’s chilly. These dresses go from spring to summer to fall and perhaps winter, though usually in winter I switch to shorter dresses that I pair with leggings.

Smocked tops make pregnancy and nursing a breeze. I have a theory that you’re either a pull upper or pull downer with nursing, and as someone whose first baby needed significant latch adjustments I had to be a pull downer so I could see best. These dresses make nursing easy and expand or shrink with adjusting bust measurements.

Few garments can take you from pregnancy, to postpartum, to evergreen like a midi dress can. They accommodate a bump very well. They are flattering and comfortable during postpartum. They’re cute and beautiful during everyday motherhood. Cotton and linen washes well.

Dresses are, in sum, the most functional of garments.

I’m partial to the evocative Christy Dawn and Doen (both easy to find on Poshmark) and love the Neuflora, Hill House, and Ivy City brands as well. My wintertime dresses are almost always Pyne and Smith.

To my fellow dress lovers, please share your favorites in the comments below.