Are you like, “how many posts can she write with the word summer in the title?” Well honey, I’m not done yet. Get used to it!
In general, I hate newsletters about buying stuff. I don’t want to know your Amazon finds, or hear about a sale from an online retailer that will have a similar discount like ten other times this year, or start thinking I need to spend more money, or bring more stuff into my house. I don’t want it! There are a few kinds of shopping I love to do: books (obviously), craft supplies, food, and the Criterion DVD sale that happens at Barnes & Noble twice a year1. Other than that…no thanks. I will spend every dollar I’ve earned on pastries and matcha, but I don’t want a list of stuff I don’t need from Target or J. Crew. I already have a clutter problem.
That being said…I’m here today to bring you a one-off post about something I bought. And it’s clothing. It is…the sack dress.
Let’s back up. Last fall, I kept getting ads on Instagram from a company called Wool&. There were real women with real instagram profiles talking about how obsessed they were with these dresses. The fabric was a wool blend, the dresses were solid colors, and they wore them all the time. The posts showed how they could style them a million different ways. The company does something called a 30 day challenge, where you wear the same dress for 30 days (for at least eight hours a day), take a picture of yourself each day, and then get a $30 credit. There’s also a 100 day version of the challenge if you’re feeling really bold. There are tons of women doing this challenge on Instagram, and I scrolled through their feeds with curiosity. I joined the Facebook group, despite not having a dress. There were a lot of posts from women about their husbands or students not noticing that they were wearing the same thing every day (I’m worried about these husbands and students, but then again, I’m not sure Hollis would notice if I wore the same dress for a week).
I was intrigued. These dresses weren’t really my style, but they looked comfortable and maybe all I’ve needed, all this time, was a wool blend dress. Maybe I wanted to wear the same thing for 30-100 days. Maybe this would solve all my problems. Maybe I would never have to buy clothes again (I hate buying clothes so, so much and I wish there was a service like Stitchfix but for someone who just wants to dress like a different movie character every day…that’s a service I would pay for). I was suddenly obsessed with the idea of buying one of these dresses. I felt almost feverish as I ordered not one but two dresses.
And then I became actually feverish because I got Covid. The dresses arrived in October while I was stuck in bed and I put the envelopes in my closet. I couldn’t even think about wearing the same thing for 30 days because I was wearing pajamas every day. And those dresses stayed in their envelopes in my closet until a few weeks ago, because every time I saw them I was wracked with guilt that I bought expensive (for me) wool dresses. It was too late to return them. It was too late to even do a 30 day challenge because you have to start it in the calendar year in which you bought the dress. I love to (not) deal with my problems by using avoidance so I just kind of forgot about the dresses.
But then, a few weeks ago, I remembered they were there, ripped open the packages, and tried them on. One of them, the Summer, was actually a perfectly nice dress and the kind of thing I wear all the time. Maybe my fever-state dress buying wasn’t such a problem after all.
And then I tried on the other dress, the Sierra. This is the one I saw many women using in the Wool& ads as their challenge dress, and I bought it knowing that this is the exact kind of thing I do not wear. I like a defined waist. I have a lot of ideas drilled into my head from a 90s childhood about what looks “good” on me as, like Mrs. Plotkin, a pear-shaped woman. And I realized, logically, that the women wearing this dress for their challenges and looking so cute in it had very different body types than my own (perhaps they were more asparagus than pear). So I had low expectations, but, as previously mentioned, I left this dress in my closet for so long that I was way past the return window and I was stuck with it.
Maybe it was Stockholm Syndrome, but when I tried on this dress, something happened. As an A line dress, it does not define my waist. It is, essentially, a sack. It ends above my knees, so you know that I have legs, but really you have no idea what else is going on. It reminded me of a line from Catherine Newman’s Sandwich, when she’s thinking about how she’d worn burlap sack dresses as a young woman: “‘What’s in there?’ people surely wondered. A youthful human torso and legs? A truckload of Idaho potatoes? There was no telling.” 2
The same is true of Sack Dress. Sack Dress conceals all. Sack Dress is so neutral that it’s boring. Sack Dress is simple—in the morning, when it’s already 90 degrees and I’m sweating just from taking the dogs around the block, I don’t have to think about what I’m going to wear. It’s Sack Dress. Sack Dress doesn’t have any of the colors or patterns I typically favor—Sack Dress is a muted maroon, not even a color I normally wear.
Sack Dress has made me reconsider what I mean when I say something is “flattering.” A couple of years ago, I saw something online about how we often say “flattering” when we mean “thin,” and I resisted this initially. That’s not what I meant! I just meant that flattering clothes looked good, and they looked good because they accentuated the parts of my body I wanted to accentuate, and…well, uh-oh, I meant thin! Of course you’re allowed to dress your human body however you want, and I’m not here to argue with you about what “flattering” means. But what would happen if I wore something that didn’t accentuate my waist? Something that doesn’t really let you know there’s a human body under there?
There’s also the truth that I’ve gained weight over the past year, which isn’t a point I’ll belabor because you know my history of weight issues. All I’ll say is that any change in my appearance is always extremely fraught with tension for me, given all the attention and, you know, surgery that my face went through when I was a teenager. I like to keep looking the same way; it’s why I’ve been wearing winged eyeliner since high school. Any change kind of puts me into a tailspin, and it was bad enough without also trying to fit into clothes that now didn’t look the same. But Sack Dress? She doesn’t care. I could shove a pillow or a bag of groceries under Sack Dress and she would accommodate that without complaint.
I wear Sack Dress multiple times a week and so far no one has said anything about it. I don’t think Sack Dress is something you should wear if you’re looking for compliments, and unfortunately, I live for compliments (I need constant praise and approval to thrive). But that’s just not what Sack Dress is for! Sack Dress is for living your life.
Sack Dress is currently sold out in most colors in my size, but I’m so into Sack Dress that I plan on ordering another one. Who am I? Apparently, a person who no longer needs to wear fitted clothing. I also purchased two pairs of billowing, wide-leg linen pants from Old Navy. Jeans simply aren’t part of my life right now, and I’ve always hated wearing shorts. Sack Dress eliminates the need for shorts (except bicycle shorts, which I always wear underneath). Sack Dress has made me decide to get back into dramatic earrings.
I’m actually considering doing a 30 Day Challenge in a new color of Sack Dress that’s coming out at the end of July (yes, now I’m into dress preorders instead of just book preorders). Maybe I’ll do it as summer transitions into fall so I can actually mix it up with cardigans and tights, which is how I normally dress. Or maybe not! The beauty of Sack Dress is that it doesn’t need anything. Sack Dress is steady. Sack Dress is reliable. Sack Dress does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
This will very likely be the only time I write about clothing, and I think you can see why. There was actually a time in my life when I delighted in putting together weird, flashy, often themed outfits. That time is not now, which is a little sad because I do love being dressed up and (again) getting compliments. But with the priorities I have during this phase of my life, I need something simple. I need…Sack Dress.
These dresses do cost some money3, but the site claims they last forever if you care for them. My other concern is that I’m not sure I do care for my clothes, but I’m going to try. For you, Sack Dress, maybe I can become a better person. They also claim you’re not supposed to wash them very often because they don’t absorb smells the way synthetic fibers do. I’m scared to test this too much…we’re in a heat wave here in Central Ohio.
If you’ve been sucked in by the Wool& ads, let me know. Do you have any of their dresses? I want to try some other styles, maybe some that are more like what I usually wear, but there are a lot of options. And also please let me know if you’ve ever done a dress challenge. Or if you, like me, prefer to stick with a uniform each season (last summer it was jorts and striped tees from Madewell). And if you’re looking for something new to wear this summer, consider…Sack Dress. See you soon. xo
In July and December. Criterion itself offers 50% flash sales every once in awhile, but the B&N sales are great because if you’re a B&N member you can get your rewards points and free shipping. The Criterion Collection is wonderful but I DON’T want you to pay more than you have to!
Please read Catherine Newman’s Sandwich (out now!) if you want to laugh, cry, contemplate mortality, etc. One of the best books I’ve read all year, especially if you’re a mom.
A pet peeve of mine about shopping-focused newsletters is when everything costs, like, so much money and then you start thinking, “Wait, does everyone except me spend $500 on a sweater/$100 for moisturizer/redecorate their kitchen every year?” And, truly, no shame if you do spend a lot of money on your clothing or skincare (we’ve already established how much money I spend on matcha and books), but I think it’s good to remember that most people don’t. That’s internet behavior. I’m in Ohio. Anyway, Sack Dress is $138 and that’s a lot for me but I’ve already gotten my money’s worth by wearing it nonstop.
I think a LOT about clothes for someone who is not very expressive fashion-wise and tends to wear the same t-shirts and jeans all the time. So I personally love any meditation on clothes! But I agree with you that sometimes I'm a little taken aback by price tags and how cavalier people seem to be around them, because clothes are probably the area where I am LEAST likely to spend money (although I'm trying to get better! just in that I'm trying to understand that it's better to buy something that fits right and is made well, etc. etc.). Anyway, loved this as always! Write all the summer newsletters you want, it's your season!!!
KC Davis (of Strugglecare) recently posted on tiktok about how to dress if your body shape was "barrel with legs" and it included sack dresses. I'm more pear/less barrel, but I love the swing dresses that Old Navy puts out most seasons (the linen pants are great too!), and the flowy-ness is great. I'll go see what Wool& has in plus sizes- the travel groups I'm in LOVE LOVE wool but hearing from a "real person" (Who I'm in a parasocial relationship with, yay!) may knock me over that hump and get something!