Seriously. I *love* stripes. Especially ones done like these, on this dress from Anthropologie. (Summerset sent me the link.) Click on the image to get a bigger picture; it's absolutely worth your time.
Don't you just love how the chevrons really accent the waist? I might even violate my own "no sleeveless" rule to wear this …
Of course, the best thing about this dress?
Pockets!
Look how nicely the pocket welts are set into the stripe. Just wonderful. I would have been lazy and done side-panel pockets, myself.
It's $168 at Anthropologie, and this is one of those times that I think that more than $100 for a dress is probably worth it. I know I'd spend more than $100 in aggravation trying to get this made so nicely!
And after all that talk about how I want to concentrate on yellow, gray, green, and baby blue for this spring/summer, red keeps sneaking into my sewing plans. I really love the red & light blue combo here, and I'm now obsessed with making a deep teal and black Duro with red piping … watch this space!
A Dress A Day 
I’ve been meaning to ask… when you do piping on a dress, do you use a thin piping cord, or just a folded strip of fabric. I have some ideas, you see, and I wonder if using piping cord would be too thick or stiff for a dress.
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Sarah, I usually use thin piping cord, but I don’t see why a folded piece of bias fabric wouldn’t work as well — try it and let us know!
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Just saw the new Hugh Grand – Drew Barrymore movie last weekend. In her first entrance, Drew is wearing…ta-da! a Duro! My date couldn’t understand what I was hissing to him about. Yeah, he could see that she was wearing a dress…
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I love the curves on this dress, but I have no idea why the good people at Anthropologie think this is a dress to where while lunching with diplomats, or whatever. I’d wear it to a 4th of July picnic, preferably one attended by the 21st Century’s equivalent of William Holden . . .
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Love love love playing with directional stripes as well. I agree that in this one instance the high price is worth it. Sewing that up (or more properly cutting it out) would be a nightmare).
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Sarah – You can do either – if you like the look of just a folded strip and want to get it perfectly even, go ahead and use the piping, but pull out the inside cord of the piping after stitching. What you’ll be left with is the folded outer fabric – the look of piping with more flexibility.Erin – In regards to the no sleeve rule, you could wear the dress with a shrug or cardigan, or wear it as a jumper over some sort of top. How about red top and red tights? You could really make the red pop and wear a white top and white tights.
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I agree that the stripes very nicely accentuate the waist, but I worry that this would be more than offset by how big my ass would look with wide horizontal stripes running across it!
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Celeste…One of the things I love about 50’s patterns is the deliberate emphasis on the waist/hip difference. After spending a lifetime trying to visually flatten my hips and arse I, for one, am ready to embrace a whole circus tent’s worth of horizontal, preferably red, stripes.
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What a dramatic dress!! I also adore the topstitching – subtle decoration. Love the slimming effect with the waist. Is anyone else irritated by the fact that this is a cotton dress lined with cotton and it’s DRY CLEAN ONLY?? I’ve seen this before and steered clear in disbelief. Also, I’m new to reading this blog, but I’m so hooked (thanks Rebecca!) – why the no sleeveless rule, Erin?
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Oh I love it! How fantastic is that? It would make your waist look tiny. I did worry from the back it would make my butt look big, but you know, I have a nice butt(as I am sure everyone else here does), so might as well show it off.
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When I am piping on a dress I use a fine round hat elastic as I find cotton piping cord can shrink when you wash the garment. Also the elastic is nice and smooth and bendy where cord can sometimes be a bit stiff.And sorry to sound like an idiot but what is a duro? I am a kiwi who has been sewing for 35 years and its not a word I have ever heard before.
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Ooooh…I like it. Red and light blue is one of my favorite color combinations. Also, the style is one of the most flattering for my tiny waist/large hips. I agree that this would be a pain in the arse to replicate, but my pocketbook won’t allow for such a pricey dress. Perhaps it will get marked down later??? A girl can dream….
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Uh, ya, Celeste said it first. I’ll say it next. This dress would not emphasize my waist (and I do have one), but the pockets and the myriad of stripes on the lower half of the body would make my already bubble-butt pouf out even bigger. Pockets AND stripes at the hip region? Um, not flattering except for the very trim size 2s. Sorry. Just my opinion.Stripes work great, but like everything else, only in moderation.
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I agree with Celeste – I don’t want anything to emphasis the size of my derriere! (I was J Lo before J Lo herself, if you know what I mean!)
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This dress gives me serious shivers…in a good way. I wish I could wear it.
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Oh lord, this is gorgeous. My jaw dropped as the window opened. I am generally opposed to Anthropologie, but I must have this. I nearly bought shoes today that would go perfectly with this. I guess I need to go back and pick them up!
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Does this remind anyone else of Wonder Woman or Optimus Prime? It’s such a fun dress!
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Margo,I think upscale clothing companies frequently use “dry clean only” to mean “we don’t really believe that people who can afford our clothing have the know how/attention span to clean it properly and think they should take it to a professional.” I categorically refuse to take a garment to a dry cleaner unless it is 1) a suit jacket or 2) has art-printed/silk-screened/hand-dyed fabric or 3) has a weird stain.Seriously, I even wash trousers and wool sweaters – even the ones I hand knit – in the machine. I just wash in cold-cold, gentle cycle, gentle detergent, and either hang dry or gently block on a sweater rack. I have NEVER lost a garment using this system. (but, then, I’m fantastically lazy. I developed this system in part b/c I figure there’s less chance of me shrinking something irreparably than there is chance of me never getting around to picking something up from the dry cleaner. You know those suit jackets? I have a theory that if you just hang them up with a sachet on the hanger, they eventually clean themselves . . . )
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Has anyone clicked on the button to look at the back of the dress? The stripes are not horizontal across the butt; they curve over it like the top half of a heart shape. Maybe someone has the right butt for that — it certainly isn’t me.
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what’s your beef with sleeveless?
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I love your obsession with pockets…it’s hilarious! I wonder what you put in those pockets? I sort of imagine you have them filled with kids’ candy?
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I wish I could like stripes the way you do. I’ve bought many a striped item in my time, always thinking I’d love it. It always stayed unworn in my closet, then was donated. This is cute, and I love it, but for someone else. I hope you’ll break your rule for it.
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Henriette, yes, I wish my pockets were full of candy, as I aspire to live like the guy in “One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts” by Shirley Jackson. Usually they’re full of change, metrocards/CTA passes, my cell phone, random scraps of paper on which I’ve written incomprehensible hieroglyphics, pencil stubs (for the writing of said hieros), gimme pens from hotels and conventions, and a measuring tape.Hmm. Perhaps I should not be allowed pockets, after all!And my beef with sleeveless isn’t really about the lack of sleeves; I am okay with no sleeves, but I have a little scarring on my upper back that I’m very self-conscious about, made the worse because of course you can’t really SEE your own upper back. So I’m sure I think it’s worse than it is. And most things sleeveless are scoop-backed as well.
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I have an Anthropologie a couple of blocks from my work, and ran out at lunch yesterday to try this on — it was stunning, and I bought it. I do have to say that the stripes are orange, not red, which was a bit of a disappointment, but it’s still gorgeous.The dress is fully lined in light blue, and has little snaps under the straps to hold your bra in place. Beautifully made. AND it made me look very thin, both from the front and the side!! It’s very obvious when you have it on that it’s *fabric* that’s billowing out, not your body, and it hangs in a way that makes your body look much slimmer underneath. All in all, a complete winner of a dress. Thanks so much for the link!Melissa
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Anthropologie has amazing designers. I, er, got kicked out of one of their stores for sneakily taking photos of the clothes. *cough* Oops.–Lydia
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Oh Erin, I think you should put whatever you like in your pockets…I don’t want to be an enabler, but I feel it is my duty to pass this link on to you: http://www.amazon.com/Just-Pockets-Sewing-Techniques-Design/dp/1561581704
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that dress is the dress of my dreams, i swear! i’ve been coveting that dress(and the breast reduction surgery i’d need to go along with it!) since the first time i saw it. i’ve actually thought long and hard about how to recreate it, but i am not that skilled. *sighs*
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The photograph of this dress does not represent the true colors. The colors are very drab and dingy looking in person. Too bad, I really loved the style of this dress.
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FYI – this dress is now on sale for $79.95 at my loccal Anthropologie. I bough it and LOVE it.
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I luv em 2
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