Dresses: Stepping Out of the Wrap Zone

K, so everyone knows wrap dresses are awesome and fantastic and figure flattering. But they aren't for everyone, no matter what your issue of Glamour says. Here are my major problems with wrap dresses. They definitely have their time and place, and I love a good DVF wrap dress. But people snap them up thinking that they can throw them on and look like a model, and it might not be for you. If you are long waisted, a wrap dress is going to look weird. Because it can't adjust where it wraps around, you're stuck with it like that. You want the wrap to come around where your waist is the smallest. In a perfect world, that would be your waist. In real life, its usually a tad higher. If you can find a wrap dress that perfectly accentuates you, BUY IT. But if you can't, I promise you aren't a freak of nature. You can do better.

Here is a pretty traditional wrap dress. Pretty! But see where it ties right at the waist? Great for models! Not so great for people who have had babies or people who have long torsos. Honestly, I usually like my body but this would bother me, because it would sit right above my hips, which we already know are not model proportions. I am underwhelmed.

Now, I also don't love that everyone and their mother owns these. When they first came out, they were chic and different, and now they are pretty commonplace. We can do better than that! Here are some alternative dresses I found that are going to be just as flattering, if not MORE.


Check out this one from MikaRose (and under $50!) Not sure if you can see, but the bodice ends right under the bustline, and then falls into pleats. Forgiving pleats. Not to mention, you could totally use this as a Little Black Dress, but it's just a little more interesting.



I love this fancy Shmancy one from Nordstrom. It has that nice thick band that is going to fall to the tiniest part on your body, then heads south away from the body. I would really recommend this to someone who doesn't love their hips. Plus, the color!!!


Another one from MikaRose that I loved. I actually have one like this in navy, that's a little shorter. I would actually recommend you hem this up to the knee. You CAN tailor this stuff. Why do I love it? It is kind of wrap dress-esque with that tie, but YOU have the control over where that tie goes. Cinch it right around your favourite spot (read: littlest) on your waist. Mine usually goes just a tad higher than this. I know it has belt loops on it. Cut them off and put them where you want them.


This is a gorgeous alternative from the regular Little Black Dress, and I love this because not only will it camouflage anything you don't love, look how it shows off the neck? I've never met anyone who didn't love a little cleavage action, and the rest of the dress just serves as a big arrow that says "Look up here!!" (Neiman Marcus)


And if you still want to be the tried and true wrap dress lover, at least try one like this, also from Nordstrom. It wraps across the bodice rather than your waist, then has the empire seam which makes you look little. The pattern does the rest of the work for you. See how its just a medium size? That's good, that's very good. Look at that model smiling! She is thinking wow, now no one can tell I have saddlebags! I would be smiling too.

(By the way, please notice that they are all knee-length or higher. Stick with that.)

K, so hopefully you can see that wrap dresses, although having their place in the fashion world, are not the be all end all. You can step outside of the box! Now go, go my lovelies, and buy a dress. They are pretty and feminine and unexpected and forgiving. Okay, you know what? I just talked myself into buying a new dress.