Sometimes I get stuck in a rut when I’m shopping. Either I end up with too many plain, solid pieces or too many dresses with busy prints. In the spring I wrote two posts showing plain & playful spring pieces, and I personally appreciated seeing the contrast between the different types of pieces I could get to help build my wardrobe. It gave me a better awareness of what’s in my own closet and helped expand my horizons by seeing other types of pieces that could bring more diversity and depth to my closet.
Here are examples of summer dresses categorized into plain, playful, and pop. I’ll follow up with a second post that includes tops, shorts, and skirts, too!
The most notable thing is that for “plain” pieces I tried to include ones that had something special in them. Like, the white one below is actually an all over lace dress, the black one has a tulip hem, and the coral one has detailing down at the hem. They’re all small details but help plain solids have a little character, keeping them simple without being boring.
As usual, all are under $50 and mostly from Target, Old Navy, and ModCloth.
Links to Shop
Short Sleeved Dresses: White Lace (plain) | Graphic Print Crepe (playful) | Embroidered Floral Shift (pop)
Notes: White Lace comes in 5 colors. Floral shift comes in navy too…and a lot of reviewers said they liked this dress a lot for work.
And personally, I REALLY WANT the graphic print dress!
Maxi Dresses: Black Tulip Hem (plain) | Green (playful) | Chiffon Floral Print (pop)
Notes: The tulip hem comes in 3 colors and a striped version. The floral is a breezy chiffon material that I think is prettier close up. And it comes in 3 other colors and totally different prints. I like all 4 of them!
Tank Dresses: Blazing Coral Ponte (plain) | Peach Daisy Print (playful) | Striped Ponte Dress (pop)
Notes: The first one comes in a pretty baby blue and navy. The peach one has a cute daisy print and some nice detailed seaming that you can see better up close. And I just straight up love the striped dress. No surprise!
